LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



tiW^L^iaqpp^^ 

-Mh 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



BY THE SAME AUTHOR, 



MATERNITY: 



A TREATISE FOR WIVES AND MOTHERS. 



Fifth Edition, i vol. i2mo. $2.25. 



A monitor to young wives, a guide to young mothers, and 
an assistant to the family physician. It deals skillfully, 
sensibly and delicately with the perplexities of married life, 
treating of the needs, dangers, and alleviations of the duties 
of maternity, and giving extended, detailed instructions for 
the care and medical treatment of infants and children. 

"A carefully written and very 
comprehensive work." — N, Y, 
Tunes. 

" Of great importance, very wide 
interest and of marked delicacy." 
— Pacific Congregationalist (San 
Francisco). 

m " The book merits an extensive 
circulation." — U.S. Medical and 
Surgical Journal {Chicago.') 

u There are few intelligent moth- 



ers who will not be benefited 
by reading and keeping by them 
for frequent counsel a volume so 
rich in valuable suggestions." — 
Hearth and Home. 

"It gives plain and sensible di- 
rections touching the various du- 
ties peculiar to the wifely state, 
the care of children, and the dis- 
eases peculiar to wives and moth- 
ers." — N.Y, Tribune, 



MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS: 



f ratikal jitnto 



FOR THE CONSERVATION OF THE HEALTH OF GIRLS, 



BV 

TULLIO SUZZARA VERDI, A.M., M.D. 



AUTHOR OF "MATERNITY: A TREATISE FOR YOUNG WIVES AND MOTHERS; 
PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF HEALTH, WASHINGTON, D.C. ; ETC. 



" This hour 's the very crisis of your fate." 
- W — Dryden, 



}rfl 




NEW YORK: 
J B. FORD 6- COMPANY. 

1877. 




"RG t z. ( 



COPYRIGHT A.D. 1876. 
J. B. FORD & COMPANYo 



PREFACE. 



THERE was a time when medicine, or what was 
supposed to be the medical art, was the property 
of necromancers, or of high-priests who consulted the 
oracles. A tithe was paid for the oracle ; the larger 
the tithe the more favorable the answer : and the wise 
men of those days anathematized all philosophers dar- 
ing to get a peep at the works of nature. 

We have the same wise men now, only not so bold, 
as human intelligence has risen above ignorance and 
superstition. Yet we have them ; and they hold that 
medicine is their province, and that attempts made to 
induce the people to seek information in its realms 
are flagrant violations of their inherited and sacred 
rights. 

But w T ith the development of human intellect came 
a desire of independence which even these high-priests 
could not restrain. Thousands of learned physicians 
severed the chains of professional slavery to teach the 
people that the mystical philosophy of the physician 
is but the study of nature, which even the humblest 
citizen should have the privilege of enquiring into. 
These teachers are not condemned to the stake now 



2 MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS, 

— civilization forbids it ; but in the scarlet chambers 
where they hold council the high-priests condemn 
these humanitarians to the pillory of their scorn and 
to the denunciation of the faculty. The times are 
more auspicious, however ; bigotry is daily loosening 
its grasp, and more physicians are now converted to 
faith in freedom than ever before. 

Exclusiveness having heretofore been the practice 
of medical men, it is not surprising that the people 
remained ignorant of even the simplest rules for the 
preservation of their health. Under that system the 
functions of the human economy were, in polite soci- 
ety, a sort of forbidden ground, a discussion or a 
mention of which could not be tolerated. This un- 
reasonable custom finally degenerated into prudery 
and false modesty. Woman, naturally more delicate- 
minded than man, under this social restraint became 
very reticent, and it was with difficulty that she would 
mention any organ of her body, even though she suf- 
fered general discomfort, and even great pain. The 
mother watched the roses fading on the cheeks of her 
daughter, and yet did not dare to ask for the causes 
that induced the apparent disturbance. It was only 
when disease became fully developed, or the girl had 
fallen into an extremity of debility, that the physician 
was called in, who would often find that neglect or 
diffidence had allowed a simple disorder to grow into 
a permanent disease. 



PRE FA CE. 3 

These erroneous notions of propriety have largely 
contributed to the degeneracy of the health of girls, 
particularly in the higher spheres of social life. 

In every household will be found young women 
who, from the day of their entrance upon womanhood, 
have become victims of periodical sufferings ; mothers, 
who, after giving birth to a child or two, are ex- 
hausted for the remainder of their lives; women who 
drag a suffering body in the exercise of family duties. 

The learned physician now looks upon these social 
customs and practices as the cause of the deteriora- 
tion of women, drops the purely medical art — the drug, 
that cannot bring blood to their arteries, tissue to 
their muscles, or bone to their frames — and studies the 
organization of their nature and the requirements for 
its preservation. The Hygeia of antiquity was a myth- 
ological idea ; Hygiene of to-day is a science. It is 
the science that teaches how to conduct, how to pre- 
serve life; it is not the art of curing disease, it is 
the science of preventing it. Shall we keep it from the 
young, who have a life to preserve, to offer it to the 
old, whose life's thread has passed from Clotho to La- 
chesis, and is already held by Atropos the inexorable ? 

Invalidism prevails amongst the women of our gen- 
eration. This fact should concern not only the phy- 
sician, but the statesman, the political economist and 
the lover of mankind. Has the civilization of the 
last century done no more for woman than to reduce 



4 MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS, 

her strength and her capacity ? If so, it is high time 
that it direct its best efforts to her moral and physi- 
cal improvement. Is not the present system of female 
education founded upon a radical error, when it is 
proven by statistical observations that the physical 
condition of the educated woman is far inferior to 
that of her illiterate laboring sister? Parents should 
reflect upon this fact so often stated and reasserted 
by every medical authority. 

Education cannot imperil the life of a student if 
in the curriculum of her studies the science to pre- 
serve her life is included. In every school there 
should be taught anatomy, physiology and hygiene — 
and the latter practiced within its walls. Let every 

organ of the body be called by its right name, — as 

* 
the arches or pillars of a building; the angles or tri- 
angles of geometrical figures; the petals or the stamens 
of flowers, — and the absurd notions that have driven a 
study so important to the preservation of life from 
the conversation and the teachings of home, disappear. 
It is often said that " a little learning is a danger- 
ous thing." This is untrue. In the practice of medi- 
cine it is found that even a .little knowledge of the 
various branches of medical science is useful to the 
patient and to his attendant ; that the observations he 
is capable of making greatly assist the physician ; that 
his description of the symptoms is more reliable; that 
the physician's counsels are more strictly observed ; 



PREFACE. 5 

that the intercourse between physician and patient is 
more satisfactory. The fears of nervous people, which 
seem to have given rise to that saying, invariably 
spring from ignorance. Knowledge lessens fear, while 
it enhances vigilance and circumspection. 

Delicacy is undoubtedly a charming characteristic 
of woman; nay, it is to her what perfume is to a 
flower ; but true knowledge never trespasses upon deli- 
cacy. Ignorance leads to coarseness and slovenliness 
of thought, to insinuation and suspicion; and therein 
lies the vulgar fear of knowing anything regarding the 
human economy. 

During a continued family medical practice of twenty 
years, it has fallen to the lot of the author to see many 
girls driven to invalidism by ignorance and neglect ; 
also, many young married women who were quickly 
prostrated by the natural duty of bearing and rearing 
their children ; even nursing seems to have become the 
business of the cow, rather than the contribution of 
the mother. This strange and almost fatal transfer- 
ence is not from the indifference of the mother towards 
performing a sacred duty to her child, but from her 
physical inability. The ratio of mortality of infants 
has thereby greatly increased, and yet there seems to 
be no remedy. The so-called "summer complaint," 
that mows down children like a scythe, is, in most 
instances, induced by this unnatural feeding of infants. 

In the face of these startling facts, is it not the 



6 MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 

physician's duty, nay, the parent's, to raise the young 
with a thorough knowledge of the laws of health? A 
diseased plant can produce but sickly shoots. To 
improve the physical condition of our race, we must 
begin with the young. The girls of to-day are the 
mothers of the future, and upon their health, more than 
upon that of the fathers, will depend the vigor and 
the strength of the generations to come. It is to them, 
therefore, that we dedicate this work; it is to them 
that we commend it, for, if they heed its suggestions, 
if they practice its precepts, although imperfect in con- 
struction and limited in extent, it will guide them 
safely through many a vicissitude that otherwise would 
plunge them into- the afflictions, not only of a diseased 
body, but of diseased and feeble offspring hereafter. 

This little volume is offered to the Mothers of the 
land, for their guidance and that of their Daughters; 
to teachers and guardians of young girls, for help in 
their difficult and delicate task; to young women, for 
their instruction in the most important interest of their 
lives. It is written as for my own daughter, and is 
inscribed to her; and when she is of the proper age 
to need and understand it, her mother will put it into 
her hands. With this object before me and the desire 
to benefit my kind, the following pages have been 

written. 

T. S. V. 



Co mg §ait^to, 



As the Emblem of her Sex, 

This Book is Affectionately Dedicated. 

May it impart Health as boundless 

as my Love for her, 

that every mother in the land may bless her. 



CONTENTS. 



Preface. 



PART I. 

PHYSIOLOGY OF WOMEN. 

CHAPTER I. 

THE MOTHER'S DUTY. 

The Mother's duty to her Daughter. — Responsibility of Parents and 
Teachers for the Girl's Ignorance of the Modes to Preserve her 
Health. — Relative Position of Man and Woman in their Struggle for 
Existence. — Disability of Girls for Work. — Triumph of Health and 
Strength. •••...... 7-15 

CHAPTER II. 

A VEXED QUESTION. 

Importance of Studying the Body. — Distinctive Characteristics of the 
Sexes. — Physical Vigor the Foundation of Man's General Advantage. 
— Comparison of Man and Woman as Workers. — Soundness of Body 
Woman's Greatest Present Need . ..... 16-26 

CHAPTER III. 

PHYSIOLOGY AS A MORAL TEACHER. 

What are Anatomy and Physiology. — Force. — Health. — Laws of Nature 
and their Infringement. — Responsibility of Man for the Infraction of 
Natural Laws. — Accident. — Sanitary Science and Disease. — Helpless- 
ness of Ignorance. ........ 27-30 

CHAPTER IV. 
MORAL AND PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE TWO SEXES 
IN RELATION TO THEIR GROWTH AFTER PUBERTY. 

Man's Strength, Woman's Heroism. — Illustrations. — Specific Differences 
of Physical Structure. — Adaptation of their Physical Nature to the 
Requirements of the Two Sexes ...... 31-39 



i v CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER V. 
THE PELVIS . 

PAGE 

Anatomy of Woman's Pelvis, and its Mode of Growth. — Important Re- 
flections. — Necessary Protection to the Pelvis of Little Girls. — 
Dangers of Deformed Pelvis from the Dressing of Infants and very 
Young Girls. . . . . • . . 40-45 

CHAPTER VI. 

THE WOMB. 

Anatomy of the Womb. — Manner of Growth. . • . . 46-48 

CHAPTER VII. 
FALLOPIAN TUBES AND OVARIES. 

Anatomy of the Fallopian Tubes and Ovaries. — Their Functions and 

Relative Positions. ........ 49-51 

CHAPTER VIII. 

THE MAMMAE OR BREASTS. 

Relations of thes'i Organs to the Development of Beauty and Utility of 
Woman. — Anatomy of the Same. — How Dress Affects the Develop- 
ment of the Breasts. — Sympathy of the Breasts with the Generative 
Organs. — Necessity to Protect their Growth. .... 52-58 

CHAPTER IX. 

TEMPERAMENTS. 

Temperaments as the Guide for Moral and Physical Education. — Descrip- 
tion and Hygienic Requirements of the Sanguine, Lymphatic Bil- 
ious, Nervous, Mixed Temperaments. — Modification of the Tempera- 
ments by Climate, Education, Habits and Social Condition. . . 59-69 

CHAPTER X. 

PUBERTY. 

The Four Periods of Life, Infancy, Adolescence, Virility, Dementia.— 
Development of Puberty in Woman. — Vital Importance of this Period. 
— Menstruation. — Warning Symptoms of the Approach of Puberty in 
Girls. ........ r . 70-78 

CHAPTER XI. 

PHILOSOPHY AND PHYSIOLOGY OF MENSTRUATION. 

Physiology of Menstruation and Mode of Appearance.— History of Men- 
struation.— Menstruation in Relation to Ovulation.— Ovulation. — 
Menstrual Crisis.— Epoch of its Commencement and Mode of its 
Course. — Northern and Southern Girls. — City and Country Girls. — 
Effect of Temperaments.— Periodical Calculations.— Specific Course 
of Menstruation . . . . . . . . 79-92 



CONTENTS. 

PART II 

HYGIENE FOR WOMEN. 

CHAPTER I. 
HYGIENIC GENERALITIES. 



PAGE 



Hygienic Generalities. — Light. — Heat.— Exercise. — A Warning to Moth- 
ers 95-99 

CHAPTER II. 

SOCIETY, IN ITS RELATION TO THE HEALTH OF GIRLS. 

Communities. — Social Laws. — Fashion. — Dress. — Diet. — Amusements. — 
Exaggerations of Life. — Mme. George Sand's Lament. — How to Pre- 
serve the Health and. Life of Woman ..... 100-113 

CHAPTER III. 

EXERCISE AND ITS RELATION TO BODILY FUNCTIONS. 

Physiological Effects of Exercise. — Excessive Exercise. — Adequate Rest. — 
Sedentary Life. — Modes of Exercise.— Walking.— Riding. — Danc- 
ing. —Rowing. — Games. — Passive Exercise. — Driving . — Sea-Going. — 
Singing. — Gymnastics ....... 1 14-124 

CHAPTER IV. 

FOOD. 

Its Relations to the Preservation of Life. — Digestion. — Assimilation.— Ab- 
sorption. — Experiments of Dr. Beaumont. — Liebig's Division of Food 
in Classes. — History of Food. — Food and the Human Family. — Food 
and Civilization. — Physiology of Food. — Bad Digestion and Human 
Happiness. — Food and its Elements. — Direction for Kinds and Quali- 
ties of Food. — Classification of Food. — Time Required for Digesting 
Articles of Food.— Food Affecting Individual Character. — Rules for 
Diet. .......... 125-149 

CHAPTER V. 

CLOTHING. 

Its Lessons in the Preservation of Life. — Clothing and Climates.— Rea- 
sons for Clothing. — History of the Corset, and its Baneful Effects. — 
Materials for Clothing. — Articles of Clothing and their Heat Condcut- 
ing Power. — Color in Relation to Dress. — Heat Conducting Power of 
Colors. — Clothing of Special Parts ; Head, Neck, Trunk, Extremi- 
ties. — Moisture, Malaria Prevented by Modes of Dressing. — Partial 
and General Dressing. — Partial Dressing a Cause of Disease. — How 
Dress May Affect Girls. — Constipation of Women Induced by Un- 
physiological Dressing of Young Girls. — " The Cowl Does not Make 
the Friar." ......... 150-172 



vi CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER VI. 



Atmospheric Conditions in Relation to Human Health.— Hot and Dry, 
Cold and Dry, Damp and Hot, Cold and Humid. — Movement of the 
Air. — Mountain Air. — Sea Air. — Rapid Changes of Temperature. — 
Impure Air of Dwellings. — Cubic Feet of Pure Air for each Person. — 
Carbonic Acid in the Atmosphere of Dwelling and Schools.— Ventila- 
tion.— Air of Sleeping Rooms. — Combustion of Coal, Wood, Gas, Oil, 
Candles and the Carbonic Acid they Emit. — Atmosphere of Water- 
Closets, Bath-Rooms. — Sewage Gases Coming into Inhabited Rooms, 
How to Prevent it. . . . . . . . . 173-188 



PART III. 

FUNCTIONAL IRREGULARITIES, AND THEIR 
PREVENTIVE TREATMENT. 

CHAPTER I. 

SYMPTOMS OF DISTURBANCE. 

PAGE 

Signs of Puberty.— Menstruation. — Colic. — Coldness of Feet. — Rest. — 
Dress. — Food and Drink. — Demeanor. — Different Temperaments. — 
Symptoms that may Occur ....... 191-196 

CHAPTER II. 

CAUSES OF FUNCTIONAL DERANGEMENTS. 

Indispositions of Girls During Menstruation. — Causes of Derangement of 
Uterine Functions. — Remote Causes. — Temperaments. — Diet. — Bad 
Air. — Want of Exercise. — Mind and Imagination. — Opinions of High 
Authorities Regarding School Exercises and Girls' Debility. — A Moth- 
er's Story of her Daughter's Death from too Close Application to 
Study. — Effects of Wet, Heat and Cold on Menstrual Functions. — 
Uncleanliness. — Dress. — Occupation. — Immediate Causes. — Expo- 
sures. — Emotions. — Accident and other Causes .... 197-217 

CHAPTER III. 

AMENORRHEA. 

Delayed Menstruation. — Suppression and Retention of the Menses. — 
Chlorosis. — Their Symptoms, Causes, Difference, and the Preventive 
Treatment. ......... 218-233 

CHAPTER IV. 

MENORRHAGIA. 

Excessive Menstruation. — Active, Passive, Nervous or Spasmodic. — 

Causes, Symptoms and Preventive Treatment. . . . 234-204 



CONTENTS. vii 

CHAPTER V. 

DYSMENORRHEA. 

PAGE 

Painful Menstruation. — Simple, Accidental, Congestive, Inflammatory, 
Mechanical Dysmenorrhcea. — Causes, Symptoms and Hygienic Treat- 
ment. . . . ...... 241-250 

CHAPTER VI. 

LEUCORRHCEA. 

Whites. — Acute and Chronic. — Causes, Symptoms and Hygienic Treat- 
ment. . . . ...... 251-257 

CHAPTER VII. 

HYSTERIA. 

Characteristics of Women Predisposed to it. — Predisposing Causes. — Im- 
mediate Causes. — Hysteria Simulating Other Diseases. — Illustra- 
tions.— Symptoms of Simple Hysteria. — Hygienic Treatment. — Educa- 
tion and Hysteria. ........ 258-273 

CHAPTER VIII. 

INFLAMMATION AND DISPLACEMENTS OF THE WOMB. 

Acute, and Chronic, Causes and Hygienic Treatment. — Displacements 
of the Uterus ; Prolapsus, Anteversion, Retroversion, Inversion, Pro- 
cidentia. — Simple Displacements. — Causes, Symptoms and Hygienic 
Treatment. ......... 274-281 



Mothers and Daughters. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE MOTHER'S DUTY. 

THIS little volume will be devoted to the physical 
perfection of woman ; and in the effort to impart 
to her a knowledge without which her health must be in 
constant peril, the mother, and through her, the daugh- 
ter, will be addressed in the relation they sustain 
towards each other ; the mother as the wise and faithful 
counselor of the daughter, and the latter as the very 
inception of the coming mother; two halves which, 
united, complete the circle of woman's life, the unbroken 
ring of physical and moral continuity. 

We feel no hesitation in addressing the mother, who, 
having passed through the vicissitudes of a girl's life 
and progressively risen into the mother's sphere, is con- 
scious of the inadequate knowledge of the daughter; 
while it is far more difficult to address the girl, who, 
self-satisfied and in the delusion of the untaught, may 
not comprehend our solicitude. But if a girl can 
descend from the wings of sentimentality and see her- 
self as a human being, having a physical nature, and sub- 
ject to all its laws for good and for evil, this treatise 



8 MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 

may be of sufficient importance not only to claim her 
recognition, but to secuie her gratitude. 

A girl, who, like a morning rose-bud, enters into the 
first development of that life which will soon ripen into 
effulgent beauty, and disseminate around exquisite per- 
fume, may too soon wither, like many others who have 
been treated inconsistently with the true principles of 
life and health. 

It is hard for her, at the age when she sees life 
through a kaleidoscope that yields but beautiful and 
ever-changing colors, and dreams poetically of senti- 
mental pictures, to come down to actual matter, and to 
the study of the laws that regulate it. Yet, should she 
make the attempt in earnest, she would soon find that 
there is as much of the wonderful and of the beautiful 
in this constitution of hers as there is in the exquisite 
flower that adorns her bosom. 

It is sad to reflect upon the fact that that very knowl- 
edge of ourselves, so necessary to our preservation, is 
looked upon as the realm of grosser minds, and unwor- 
thy to be inquired into. It is still more sad, that 
parents, and mothers particularly, with a full under- 
standing of its importance, through educational preju- 
dices too frequently evade a branch of education so 
important to the well-being of their children. Prudery, 
mock and false modesty, have cast into early graves 
many young women who would otherwise have adorned 
society with their presence, and with love, virtue, pros- 
perity and health aided in the great problem of human 
happiness. 

It may be useless to attempt to discuss here, or deter- 
mine, the causes that have thus deflected feminine edu- 



THE MOTHER'S DUTY, g 

cation from the study of the human economy. What- 
ever they may be, the medical man is often brought in 
contact with the sad results of this illogical prudery. 
Many girls grow into womanhood only to perish as soon 
as they become mothers, in consequence of their ignor- 
ance of the simplest rules that would preserve their lives. 
A mother who sends her daughter from the paternal roof 
to become a wife, ignorant of the laws that will govern 
her as such, is guilty of a crime of omission which may 
consign that daughter to a life of misery. 

Nature prepares a human being, as it does everything 
else, for the destiny designed for it; hence growth,. as to 
time, size, shape, etc., is in conformity with the require- 
ments of that specific object. Animals destined to but a 
limited sphere of action grow quickly, and are short-lived ; 
animals whose sphere is greater, requiring a more refined 
intellect, and a more enduring muscular system, require 
longer time, and their grow T th is regulated by an unal- 
terable method which cannot be improved, but may be 
damaged. If it is interesting to watch the growth of a 
plant, to study its physical life and to provide for its 
necessities so as to have it grow beautiful and yield 
abundantly, how much more so should it be to watch 
the growth of our children, to become intimately 
acquainted with their physical necessities in order to 
have them grow beautiful and luxuriant, and to yield 
abundantly ? 

Look at our girls, and particularly those of that class 
whose means are such as to enable them to leave the 
rough work of life for the education of their mental fac- 
ulties, and from whom we should expect that knowledge 
which would make them thrive better than those of that 



IO MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 

less fortunate class whose life is a struggle of physical 
endurance. Are they healthier, stronger and more 
beautiful than their less favored sisters ? No. What a 
commentary upon refined society ! It is among the for- 
mer that the scythe of death is busiest. What excuse 
have fathers and mothers, teachers and principals of 
educational institutions, for this criminal state of things ? 
Is it that they are afraid to taint the minds of the young 
with prurient ideas? Can the knowledge of truth be 
injurious to the human mind? No knowledge, that will 
lead the mind, however young, to understand the work 
that impels it to continue an existence, can be injurious 
to it. " Forewarned, forearmed.'' That instruction will 
suggest the avoidance of those mistakes which imperil 
life, morally as well as physically. The knowledge of 
evil teaches how to avoid it; the knowledge of right 
teaches how to pursue it. Away, then, with false modesty 
in teaching what will preserve the health of the young, 
and what will enhance their moral development! The 
fear of knowledge belongs to the coward; and the fear oi 
imparting knowledge is the mark of only such weak 
creatures, mentally, as cannot trust themselves, and to 
whom should not be entrusted the education of children. 

Nevertheless, pulpits and educational chairs are full 
of such intellectual weakness. 

The body is not corruption, uncleanliness, pollution : 
it is a grand conception ; it is a marvelous work ; it is 
beautiful. Its symmetry, its strength, its health, should 
be maintained. Body and mind cannot be separated ; 
when that is done death ensues. No mind without a 
body ; and what is a body without a mind ? The mind 
cannot be improved at the expense of the body ; their 



THE MOTHER'S DUTY, IX 

correlation is such that to do violence to one is to injure 
the other. A puny mind in a strong body is a mon- 
strosity ; a puny body with a strong mind is another. 
Their relations are mutual ; both must be cultivated or 
both must perish. Then comes the corruption so con- 
stantly preached ! 

Woman, delicate and fragile from her very birth, is 
destined to become a mother, with all the sufferings 
and dangers attendant upon this exalted and beautiful 
privilege. She cannot therefore but excite the greatest 
interest, sympathy, and solicitude. 

She has scarcely entered the charmed time of youth, 
and tasted the pleasures of life, ere she finds herself 
bound to periodical occurrences which demand her con- 
stant attention and the knowledge of her physical nature ; 
for here is a process to which she is subject monthly, 
which, if disregarded, may imperil her health and even 
her life. From that moment, and for thirty years after, 
this demand will be made upon the system, requiring the 
utmost vigilance lest irregularities occur that reflect upon 
her general economy. Yet when one thinks of how 
many causes, some of which, even apparently trivial, 
can derange this process of nature, one shugMers at the 
ignorance of our women regarding the means of preserv- 
ing its integrity. And still more may we marvel at the 
indifference or neglect of the science that must acquaint 
girls with the physical laws of their existence, when we 
think of the consequences of such neglect ; for out of a. 
divergence from a periodical, normal continuance of that 
process, come such maladies as general weakness, neu- 
ralgias, spasms, hysteria, nervous headaches, backaches, 
which so disharmonize the whole system as to render the 



I2 MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 

woman useless as a wife, feeble as a mother, worthless as 
a co-laborer, uninteresting as a friend, until, conscious of 
her own disability, and destined to pain and suffering, 
she feels that life is but a burden. 

In the face of this our mothers and teachers are afraid 
or unwilling to instruct her ! 

Her very delicacy of construction should secure our 
greatest efforts for its preservation. In looking at a 
woman, young and beautiful, we would rather believe 
her a graceful flower on the meadow of life than a crea- 
ture surrounded by all kinds of perils threatening her 
very existence. We need reflect but an instant upon 
the numerous vicissitudes to which she is destined, and 
the fact that her progress in life is through storms and 
dangers, to convince ourselves that her careeer should 
be assisted with all the knowledge and moral support we 
are able to give. Let not our admiration for her mod- 
esty lead us into the mistake that ignorance of her 
physical nature is the best means to secure the purity of 
her mind ; for sooner or later she will herself find the 
rugged path and rightfully blame us for not forewarning 
her, and supplying her with the staff that would have 
enabled her to climb the rocks with safety, and overcome 
all the obstacles in her way. 

Modesty is a trait that well becomes woman. It is 
attractive by its very reservations. It never satiates in- 
quiry by complete revelation. It is pleasing, because its 
lights and shades are mellow, and are seen or*ly through 
a haze of refining delicacy. Modesty adds to the beauty 
of character as pink adds to the beauty of the alabaster 
skin. But of modesty we discover two kinds : first, 
timid modesty, an offspring of ignorance, the shrinking 



THE MOTHER'S DUTY. ^ 

of one who fears to tread upon unknown ground ; then, 
a modesty true and self-reliant, possessed of the full 
knowledge of the dignity of womanhood. The modest 
girl should yet be learned in the demands of propriety, 
for her own well-being, and for her own and others' hap- 
piness. 

Timid modesty may win friends, but not retain them ; 
it may awaken curiosity, which shall grow into fervor 
and be mistaken for love, But, as ignorance ceases, in 
the same proportion timid modesty vanishes ; and then, 
disenchanting truth comes forth in defiance of sentiment. 
Ignorance is not innocence. Dignified modesty, spring- 
ing from self-respect and self-knowledge, stands invul- 
nerable and unchangeable. A woman thus endowed 
will be dignified in her love, self-reliant and strong in 
her affections. Such modesty conquers man's love and 
respect, and holds him through all the trying experiences 
of married life. Knowledge, therefore, is no enemy to 
modesty ; on the contrary, it enriches that lovely quality 
with the candor of truth, and a sense of rectitude which 
endears woman to all her associates. 

There is nothing debasing in a study that teaches 
the anatomy and physiology of one's own mechanism; 
nothing prurient in the knowledge of the laws that 
govern it. It is through ignorance that these laws are 
violated, and that the precepts of virtue and the rules 
for health are disregarded. 

We conjure then the mother, the natural protector of 
her offspring, to instruct her daughter in the multifarious 
changes to which she is liable, that the sufferings which 
might result therefrom be avoided. 

Such instruction, coming, as it should, from the mother, 



I4 MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 

herself a woman who has passed through the various 
phases of life, will suggest and even secure on the part 
of the daughter the vigilance and discretion that will 
best protect her moral and physical life. 

Convinced of the truth that girls suffer from an igno- 
rance of the principal functions of their sex ; convinced 
that mothers and teachers, through a mistaken sense of 
delicacy, and often through ignorance as well, are loth 
or unwilling to convey to a girl a knowledge so impor- 
tant to her well-being — not for the period of her girlhood 
only, but for the successive ones of womanhood and 
motherhood — we have devoted great care to the prep- 
aration of this volume, which, while it may instruct, 
will not excite morbid fancies, and in which the parent 
and the teacher will find a safe monitor on a subject of 
so much moment to the health of girls under their 
guidance. Ruskin says : 

" Thus, then, you have first to mould her physical 
frame, and then, as the strength she gains will permit 
you, to fill and temper her mind with all knowledge and 
thoughts which tend to confirm its natural instincts of 
justice, and refine its natural tact of love. 

" The first of our duties to her — no thoughtful per- 
sons now doubt this — is to secure for her such physical 
training and exercise as may confirm her health and 
perfect her beauty ; the highest refinement of that beauty 
being unattainable without splendor of activity and of 
delicate strength." 

To the performance of this holy duty the author hopes 



THE MOTHER'S DUTY. !j 

that those entrusted with the care and direction of the 
present generation of girls will find a helpful guide in 
this little volume, the result of conscientious study and 
long experience in family practice. 



CHAPTER II. 

A VEXED QUESTION. 

ERE the topics of this volume are brought to the 
study of any girl she will probably have reached 
that age when she is willing to lay aside playthings for 
the soberer work of life. In her daily avocations and 
in the attainment of general knowledge she becomes 
aware that this world contains an immensity of things 
which will require all her industry, her deepest thoughts, 
her most earnest attention, to comprehend, to acquire, 
to estimate. As she in time becomes able to solve one 
problem after another, she will perceive that knowledge 
is obtained only through diligence and by a systematic, 
graduated method of study ; that one step brings her 
nearer to another, until she attains an intellectual height 
that seemed at first beyond her reach. All undertakings 
of any magnitude appear difficult at first, and often deter 
the lazy or the weak of purpose from starting, appalled 
at obstacles that he has not yet examined; while the 
industrious and wise go, looking forward, hourly de- 
creasing the distance between themselves and the object 
of their desire, rejoicing at progress, stimulating vigor 
with hope, until they finally reach the goal with a full 
sense of victory. The man of success does not stop 
there, for others are abreast of him ; and he must win. 
His manhood, his ambition, his very success, spur him 
forward, until the laggard drops behind in the hopeless 



A VEXED QUESTION. I? 

attempt at competition. This race for attainment is an 
attribute of civilized man, and its object is a noble one. 
Body and mind are engaged in the strife, and it would 
be but a vain attempt if these should perish in the 
endeavor. 

And this brings us directly to our subject — one often 
neglected ; one which never leaves you in life, if in 
death ; neither in joy, nor in sorrow, in sickness, nor in 
health; it is your best friend, or your worst enemy; one 
that you should know and control. Imagine an object 
upon which so much of your welfare depends, and then 
say if you would not shield it against every accidental 
evil? Would you not study it, that you might best 
serve and protect it? What then can it be — this object 
of such transcendent importance? It is your own body! 
Let not the reader hesitate to descend to a subject so 
unworthy, so unpoetical. Be assured that poetry, art 
and philosophy have failed to produce so grand, so per- 
fect, so beautiful an object as the human body; that 
science and art, philosophy and poetry, are never more 
attractive than when they treat of that very object which 
so many affect to despise. 

You have probably been on board a steamship and 
visited the engine-room ; if not, go at your earliest 
opportunity. Notice those huge shining arms of steel, 
which, although inanimate, pull and push with the 
power of a thousand horses; notice those wheels with 
interlocking teeth, revolving with a power that would 
lift a thousand tons ! You are amazed, and wonder 
what would happen if one should snap. You wonder, 
also, what power impels those blocks of iron to act as if 
life were in them, and whence the power comes. De- 



!8 MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 

scend still deeper into the vessel, and you will come to 
heated furnaces, and find men engaged in feeding them 
with tons of coal. There is the motive power ; it is in 
that black coal. It wants but a spark of fire, and some 
oxygen from the air, to convert its mass into heat ; heat 
to convert the water into steam ; steam to expand and 
lift the pistons that set the whole machinery in motion. 
Singly, the iron, the coal, the oxygen, would be inert; 
brought together, they need but a spark of fire to 
develop this wondrous power. That little spark of fire, 
then, is the initiative force of an energy that drives four 
thousand tons of matter through the waves of the ocean 
at the rate of twenty miles an hour. You ponder this 
exhibition of power, and admire the ingenuity of man, 
who taught himself to adapt mechanism to force, and 
force to mechanism, in a manner to produce such aston- 
ishing results. Your enthusiasm strengthens your cour- 
age, and you hope that you too will in time add your 
atom of intellect and ingenuity to this great capacity of 
your kind. Yet, that marvelous conception that you 
have witnessed is the resultant work of the brains and 
hands of millions of men, who in successive generations 
have only added and added, each something, to the 
other's labor, and together they obtain this grand 
achievement. 

But there is a machine of much more wonderful con- 
struction and power, the conception of which is of but 
one mind. A machine, automatic, self-feeding, and self- 
preserving ; whose motive-power was a " fiat " (the first 
spark) ; a beginning which has baffled all the investiga- 
tions of the philosophers; a beginning which, not being 
explainable, must be a faith. This machine, so perfect 



A VEXED QUESTION. T g 

in all its details, so marvelous in its adaptation, so beau- 
tiful in its execution, is — yourself. Need you go to the 
steamship to be surprised ? Need you look at her en- 
gine to detect intellectual power? No; look at your 
hand, at a hair from your head, and you will find enough 
to admire, to reflect upon, and, in its Cause, to love, to 
worship. Yet that hand, that hair, lie before you at all 
times, and go unnoticed. 

All that art and science have devised and accom- 
plished since the beginning of the world is but a trifle in 
comparison with the works of nature. Moreover, man, 
however intellectual, cannot create; he can only adapt 
that which is already created; avail himself of nature's 
laws, of nature's deeds, to model, to imitate, to construct, 
to apply what may be of benefit to himself. 

In this study we shall take man as our subject; nay, 
the best part of him, — Woman; and in the most beauti- 
ful and critical era of her existence, — Maidenhood. In 
this connection, we will apply the term " girlhood," or 
"maidenhood," to that period in a young woman's life 
when, for the first time, her system assumes the functions 
peculiar to her sex. 

Timidly she now turns into this path, for hereafter she 
will be widely separated from the boy companions of her 
childhood, with whom she has had everything in com- 
mon. Physical necessity will cause her to glide farther 
and farther away from them, and her mental and phys- 
ical culture will prepare her henceforth for a life utterly 
different from theirs. 

A story is told of Achilles, when in hiding from his 
enemies, that to discover him among the maidens with 
whom he was playing, dressed in their own costume, the 



2o MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 

stratagem of exhibiting jewels and arms was resorted to. 
Nature spoke; the girls rushed to the jewels, and Achil- 
les to the arms. In proportion to growth, the boy loses 
all taste for effeminate things, while the girl still culti- 
vates it, and even with a higher degree of appreciation 
and refinement. 

Physically, the difference becomes no less striking. 
The boy's rounded limbs yield their fat, and assume the 
irregularities of the knotty, powerful muscle ; his arms 
now lift weights that his whilom fair companion can 
hardly move; his legs carry him over mountains and 
over plains where she cannot follow. But, while nature 
seems engaged in giving the boy strength, she is assidu- 
ously laboring to give the girl beauty ; and as an author 
has said : " The beautiful face of a woman seems to be 
the most finished work of creation. " 

Here they part as girl and boy, to meet as man and 
woman; and when they meet again, the change is so 
great that one scarcely recognizes the other. The recol- 
lection of the past brings them no nearer ; had they 
parted as man and woman in intimate relations, they 
would now meet with the full recognition of each other's 
claim ; but the boy left a girl and now meets a wo- 
man; the girl parted from a boy and now meets a man. 
They were friends of old ; but they find that they must 
actually make one another's acquaintance, as if they were 
strangers. 

In this separation, the moral is no less striking and 
peculiar than the physical change. The man now looks 
upon the woman as a weaker being whom he is bound to 
protect. He manifests his interest by many acts that 
refined society calls gallantry. Woman generally acqui- 



A VEXED QUESTION. 21 

esces, even with a sense of gratified vanity, in this po- 
sition. Such relation gradually becomes intensified, 
until the man assumes control of the woman. It is this 
that has caused so much dispute, and excited more com- 
ment and passionate discussion amongst philosophers 
and moralists, philanthropists and romancists than almost 
any other question. Still, their rhapsodies and ha- 
rangues have accomplished but little ; and man still 
lends his strong arm to the willing receiver, who rarely 
considers it a burden, although wiseacres will insist that 
it is only an imposition upon her. 

The reason for man's general advantage in power is a 
very simple if not a very lofty one. In a word, it lies in 
his physical superiority and efficiency. 

In the struggle for existence, health and strength are 
the shields for self-preservation — the weapons for the 
battle. No one, however rich, however exalted, can 
avoid that struggle ; and here it is that man is superior, 
naturally taking the lead in the government and the 
domination of the world. In certain historical periods, 
when men gave themselves up to effeminate habits, they 
ceased to be powerful, and were conquered and over- 
whelmed by nations of men who had cultivated energy, 
maintained mental and physical activity, and economized 
vital force by proper restraint upon the passions and the 
vanities of social life. 

In the race of life the strongest wins; and that there 
is a constant and continuous struggle among all animals, 
man included, for supremacy, is incontestable ; equally 
incontestable is it, that the healthier and stronger the 
individual, the greater is the chance for success. The 
healthiest and the strongest is even the preferred, for 



22 MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 

health and strength is beauty. Among the lower orders 
of 'the animal kingdom the battle for life is fiercest, and 
often the weak has to die that the strong may live. 
With humanity, the battle of life is not always a matter 
of physical strength, for the highly developed mind con- 
trols action ; and action, thus controlled, is superior to 
mere brute force. But great conceptions, resulting in 
concentration and organization of power, are the work 
of healthy minds. Hence, body and mind, "pari passu," 
act in the strife for self-protection, and health is the 
essence of the strength that conquers. 

It is a common grievance that man has a better 
chance than woman in this struggle ; that he has arro- 
gated the power to govern both sexes; that he has made 
woman subservient, and driven her from law and gov- 
ernment, of which she is, nevertheless, a subject. We 
will not deny the assertion, but we will indicate the 
reason by an example of its action. 

The United States government employs in the various 
Departments at the capital many hundreds of women, 
and~ Congress has provided that, in the clerical force, 
no distinction shall be made except on account of 
fitness. If the women do not rise in office in the same 
proportion as the men, it is not the fault of the law, or 
the arrogance of the men ; nor is it on account of 
mental, but of physical, disability. Scores of women 
daily leave the Departments exhausted, overcome by 
nervousness or by ailments peculiar to their sex. Were 
they healthy and strong,, they would rival men, with the 
chances in their favor ; for it is admitted that they excel 
in sobriety, industry, carefulness and diligence. As it 
is in those offices, so it is in every department of life. 



A VEXED QUESTION. 2 3 

The advantage of man is in his training and education 
and consequent strength; his physical existence is not 
dwarfed by stringent regulations of mistaken propriety 
to take him from the fields of play and exercise; his 
body is allowed to grow untrammeled by tight lacing, 
not deformed by unphysiological vestment, not exposed 
by partial covering. His limbs are free to run, leap or 
wrestle ; his chest is clear, and he grows as nature pro- 
vided that all animals should grow — strong, robust and 
self-reliant. 

So should woman grow, and then her struggle for 
existence would gain such proportions as to compel the 
present stronger sex to acknowledge her, not only as his 
equal, but as his ally in all the great undertakings of 
life. 

In the order of creation man and woman are only the 
complement of each other; and one has but to study the 
law of adaptation to discover that, in the fitness of 
things, they are in perfect harmony. They act two dis- 
tinctive parts, but in a co-ordinate manner, so that they 
are auxiliary, rather than subordinate, to each other — 
imperfect in separation, perfect in union. It cannot be 
attempted, therefore, to make woman identical with man, 
but to make her perfect in her sphere, and by true devel- 
opment of natural capacities enable her to perform the 
work adapted to her organization. That is the true 
equality to be demanded for the two sexes — a chance 
for equality in excellence, whatever the respective vocation 
or adaptation may be. 

Sterne, in one of his sermons, says : "Had God 
intended to make woman the master of man, He would 
have drawn her from his head ; had He intended to 



24 MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 

make her his slave, He would have drawn her from his 
feet; but drawing her from his side He made her his 
companion and his equal." 

However, it is not the purpose of this book to discuss 
social questions, except so far as they concern the health 
of our girls and, through them, of mankind; and partic- 
ularly is it not its intent to discuss the social equality 
claimed by some of the more advanced adherents of 
"woman's rights " (vulgarly so-called), a " cause " which 
has perhaps created more commotion than progress 
towards the welfare of woman. 

The world seems to have settled that man, as the 
representative of physical force and physical endurance, 
should be pre-eminent in the control of human affairs. 
Not that intellect, in which woman might claim equality, 
if not pre-eminence, has been deemed secondary or sub- 
ordinate to physical power ; but because physical power 
is in fact the exponent of the intellect, the execictive 
officer of all mental operations. As man possessed both 
physical and mental strength, there would be no alterna- 
tive but to accept him as the leader. 

It is from the self-evident quality of these truths that 
we are forced to feel the essential difference existing 
between the sexes, manifesting itself even at a very 
tender age, and which, in due course, becomes thoroughly 
denned when they assume the parts in the plan of crea- 
tion imposed by their respective conditions. 

But, at the same time, the very ease with which man 
instinctively takes and woman unthinkingly yields the 
larger share of employment, of emolument, of influence, 
authority and power, is an enforcement of the lesson 
that this book is meant to teach — that bodily vigor is 



A VEXED QUESTION. 2 $ 

the foundation of success in life. And whether it be in 
the various avenues of trade and professional life, or in 
that richer and happier realm, the family, from which 
woman's influence has its broadest and grandest sweep, 
the rule still holds. " A sound mind in a sound body" 
is that which alone will give woman her true place in 
nature and in society. 



CHAPTER III. 

PHYSIOLOGY AS A MORAL TEACHER., 

OF all laws of nature none are so important to 
humanity as the laws of health, for, as we have 
seen, without health man can accomplish but little. 

Health is that condition of the body in which all its 
organs and tissues perform their functions without inter- 
ruption ; any other would be disease. It behooves us, 
then, to understand those functions, lest we unwittingly 
interfere with their free and normal operations. 

Woman's organization is more complex than man's, 
hence she should be a greater student of her nature 
than even man should be of his. The finer and more 
complicated the machinery, the more profound the study 
necessary, is a dictum which we cannot gainsay. It 
devolves, then, upon woman to earnestly and profoundly 
consider all the operations of the organs special to her 
sex. 

There are narrow-minded people who do not recognize 
this necessity ; for in life or in death, in the normal or 
the abnormal, in the act or the accident, they declare, 
one should see but the finger of God — the exhibition of 
his will. They are so well acquainted with the will of 
the Almighty that they do not think it temerity to thus 
pronouce his judgment. Were their assumptions true, 
the very word accident should be expunged from the 
vocabulary of every idiom, as an accident could not be 
an accident if preordained by any power. Believers in 



PHYSIOLOGY AS A MORAL TEACHER. 



27 



God should rather be terrified at the idea of holding 
him responsible for their infractions of his laws. The 
laws are ordained and enacted, and all matter, organic 
or inorganic, is made subservient to them; and neither 
the most moral nor the most wicked, the most learned 
nor the most ignorant, can change them. The existence 
of these laws should, then, be the signal-light of our 
actions, which should be watched with eager solicitude; 
for, if we sleep in our bunk when the beacon-light is in 
view, and then awake to find ourselves stranded upon 
the shore, helpless and bleeding, would it not be illog- 
ical to prostrate ourselves before the Almighty and 
thank him for his visitation ? What a plausible argu- 
ment for the captain of a ship, who, having abandoned 
the helm for his bed in the moment of danger, would 
plead that the Almighty lulled him asleep that the 
wicked passengers might be punished for their sins! 
The narrow-minded man who affects to believe that 
every motion, however accidental, is decreed then and 
there by the will of God, would probably be the first to 
visit the captain with his indignation, and vote to hang 
him to the mast. 

An accident is always the result of the violation of a 
natural law, whether such violation has occurred through 
ignorance or ill-will; and human responsibility is just 
in proportion to the knowledge of such law. When the 
law is written or expounded there can be no just plea 
for our ignorance ; and it would be insane, if not wicked, 
to hold the law-maker responsible for our infringement. 
God, unlike Caligula, has not placed his laws at 
such a height that human vision cannot reach them, 
Even animals, without reason, instinctively act in obedi- 



28 MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 

ence to the laws of nature, self-preservation being the 
motive that impels them. The bird takes its flight south- 
ward at the approach of winter; the dog selects the 
grass that is medicine to its system ; the horse pricks up 
its ears and listens at the approach of danger. Man 
has more than instinct — he has reason. His reasoning 
powers lead him to comparison ; comparison yields a 
knowledge that is accumulative ; his knowledge he can 
impart to others, which is education, and to which every 
every human being can add his bounty of experience. 

Typhoid fever appears in the midst of a family and 
carries to an untimely grave the young and the strong. 
This is startling! But a sanitary engineer comes to 
investigate the cause, finds a pool of stagnant water 
giving rise to a deadly effluvium ; the pool is drained, 
the cause removed, and the people residing thereabout 
are no longer attacked by the fatal malady. 

Smallpox appears in a community; in a short time a 
mantle of terror spreads over all its members. A scien- 
tific hygienist, acquainted with the laws of propagation 
by contagion, isolates the unfortunate ones afflicted with 
the disease, destroys or disinfects everything that may 
convey the virus; the disease is arrested and the com- 
munity saved. 

The plague visits a badly built and overcrowded city, 
London, and carries away one hundred thousand in- 
habitants in a terribly short space of time; the London 
fire occurs and burns down hundreds of acres of miser- 
ably ventilated and dirty dwellings ; the city is rebuilt on 
hygienic principles, ventilation and drainage are re- 
garded, overcrowding forbidden, and the plague appears 
not again, although hundreds of years elapse. 



PHYSIOLOGY AS A MORAL TEACHER. 2 g 

What miserable helplessness, if people should fold 
their arms in the face of danger and wait for the decree 
of Providence to free them from the scourge ! That 
they would be punished for their cowardly inertness 
there is no doubt, but the punishment would be self- 
administered. 

The study of cause and effect has corrected a thou- 
sand evils, and will go on correcting them so long as, in 
the consciousness of sacred duty, man has regard for the 
laws of nature and obeys them. Where knowledge is 
attainable it is criminal to avoid it. The ignorance of 
the laws of health, which learned men have placed before 
the people, is a deflection from moral duty, the fruit 
of which must be illness of the body, and destruc- 
tion of life. Laws, human or divine, are made for the 
welfare of all, and it is presumption to suppose that they 
might be suspended in a particular case simply because 
the offender regrets the infraction, and invokes the Great 
Power to make him an exception. The prayer of the 
infractionist is but hypocrisy; for the law must take its 
course, and not be suspended that a criminal may clear 
his conscience. Sincere repentance appeals to human 
sympathy, as well as to divine ; but while the reward for 
his repentance may be a future happiness, in this or in 
the other world, he must now expiate the penalty for his 
present crime. 

This digression, quasi theological, may be deemed 
an intrusion, introduced on the false plea of physical 
education; but, indifference to the study of the physical 
laws that govern our economy is so general and so fla- 
grant, encouraged even by professors of religion, that 
we are driven to trespass upon a dominion we would 



3 o MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 

rather avoid, that nothing may remain unobserved that 
has any bearing upon the physical welfare of our fellow- 
men. 

If that anxiety has driven us beyond the sphere of a 
medical teacher let it be our apology. 



CHAPTER IV. 

MORAL AND PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF WOMAN. 

THE external appearance of an animal does not 
always indicate its sex. The peculiarities that 
characterize each sex rarely become pronounced before 
childhood passes into youth. Boys are often mistaken 
for girls and girls for boys at that early age when it is 
not thought necessary to dress them in garments dis- 
tinctive of their sex. It is later, when nature prepares 
each one for its ultimate physical destiny, that the traits 
peculiar to each respective sex become plainly mani- 
fested. At that point of time the two sexes commence 
to vary in their mode of growth, and continue to do so 
until the full and mature size of man and woman is 
attained. 

This mode of growth, so different from that of child- 
hood, is not only made apparent by the difference of 
form and shape of the body, but also by the manifesta- 
tion of the mind in the development of intellectual 
power, of the passions, the normal dispositions, and the 
aesthetics of social and refined life. As man departs 
from childhood he acquires courage, energy, and all the 
qualities that lead to the strife for conquest, for honor, 
or for gain. Woman, on the other hand, cultivates the 
nobler passions of the heart that direct her to devotion, 
to charity and to love. Man's physical development is 
consonant with his moral inclination, and gives him the 
nervous force, the muscular strength, to achieve the 



32 MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 

plans of his conception. The childlike roundness of his 
limbs, the smoothness and complexion of his skin, grad- 
ually disappear, to be replaced by the irregularities of 
developed muscles, by deeper and ruddier shades of 
color, by stronger and deeper voice. The timidity of 
his youth is changed into a courage that knows no fear; 
he is stronger in contention than in peace. His height 
is increased beyond that of woman; his carriage is firm 
and decided; all his pursuits indicate force. Such 
characteristics are manly, and are recognized even by 
the parents as the heralds of power and success. 

Woman, physically, is comparatively weaker, but her 
nervous system is more impressionable, and is, therefore, 
more prone to change. Being impressible, she detects 
good or evil with quickness, and responds to her im- 
pressions with energy. She repels an odious object 
without hesitation; she embraces a pleasing one with 
enthusiasm. This sensibility plays an important role in 
the conventional life of humanity; it denounces dis- 
honor; it repels injustice; it rewards merit and virtue, 
and it animates charity. Her tenderness conquers posi- 
tiveness, her affection overpowers even reason. 

As a result of her natural traits and peculiarities of 
culture she is distinguished for her love of humanity, 
often manifested in her compassion for sufferers, in her 
charity for the needy, in the conciliations brought about 
through her mediatorship. Her mission being one of 
peace, of charity and love, she is an easement to the 
rugged life of man ; a refreshment to his heated brain ; 
a rest to his forcing, contriving, swaying, dominating 
spirit. " She orders with a caress, she threatens with a 
tear; her empire is goodness." — (Rousseau.) 



CHARACTERISTICS OF WOMAN, 



33 



The poets have sung paeans in her honor; muses have 
been invoked in her praise. 

The brute bravery of man is in her contrasted by a 
moral courage that has no bounds. Her immolation en 
the altar of love and virtue reaches beyond the capacity 
of man. The history of revolutions, wars and famines 
has given striking illustrations of this power of self- 
sacrifice. Her prowess is seldom induced by ambition, 
by pretension, or by lower passions. Her love is the 
motive power of her moral greatness. She abounds in 
patriotism; she defies a giant in the defense of her little 
ones. Man unfurls the banner of freedom, and in the 
storm of battle he is foremost in the charge of the 
braves. Woman voluntarily moulders in the dungeon 
or the bastile by the side of her father or husband, that 
he may not perish alone, or live uncared for; with him 
she shares the gallows or the guillotine. This timid 
creature, who would tremble at the sight of an insect, 
will scale a prison or a fortress, open her breast to a 
dagger, unflinchingly stand before a tiger, lend her 
bosom to the dying Roman, suffer cold, hunger, and 
death that the one she loves may be saved, or the prin- 
ciple she maintains may be vindicated. 

During the French revolution, which for terror, blind 
passion and incarnate deviltry has hardly had its parallel 
in the history of the world, woman played a conspicuous 
part; where she hated her ferocity was unbounded; 
where she loved, her love was divine. 

The following pertinent story is told of Mile, de Som- 
breuil : Her father was condemned to perish under the 
guillotine, where in the previous twenty-four hours hun- 
dreds had been decapitated. Mile, de Sombreuil asked 



.34 MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 

the price of her father's deliverance. The cruel answer 
was that she should drink a goblet of human blood. 
The condition was so inhuman that these murderers 
thought it beyond even the devotion of this martyr. She 
who, under ordinary circumstances, would have fainted 
at a drop of blood, took the chalice thus contemptuously 
offered, and drank the sickening draught. She dropped 
into convulsions immediately afterwards, this being, of 
course, induced by the great mental effort to conquer 
her horror and disgust at the libation. Her father's life 
was thus saved, but only to be spent in a dungeon : she 
did not leave him then ; but there in a dark cell of the 
Bastile, she shared his imprisonment until the reign of 
terror ceased and humanity prevailed. All her fellow 
prisoners shed tears at the exhibition of such filial love, 
at a time when the satanic passions seemed to have been 
unchained amidst that benighted people. 

But it was for Mme. de Rosambo to make even 
grander this greatest of virtues. In perceiving Mile, de 
Sombreuil, Mme. de Rosambo exclaimed: "You have 
had the glory of saving your father; I shall have the 
consolation of dying with mine." 

Such is woman! Volumes have been written, and 
many more could be compiled, with instances of this 
self-immolation of woman on the altar of love, virtue, 
piety and devotion. But as it is not our purpose to 
write the romance of woman's mental and moral life, we 
must pass on to our intention of examining more im- 
mediately into her physical life and development. 

From the time when the difference arises in the devel- 
opment of the boy and the girl, the former in a short 
time loses all his primitive appearance, whereas woman 



CHARACTERISTICS OF WOMAN. 



35 



perfects her already beautiful lines of contour. From 
this time her growth is more rapid than his; both anato- 
mists and physiologists concur in the statement that this 
growth is physical as well as moral, and that the summit 
of woman's growth is attained at the age of twenty-one, 
while that of man is put at twenty-five. Legislators, 
recognizing this difference, have decreed that her majority 
shall be at eighteen, while that of the man is decreed at 
twenty-one, or in proportion to this established theory 
of growth. Herr Teufelsdrockh's hard philosophy rec- 
ognized this difference when he said, " I have heard 
affirmed, surely in jest, by not unphilanthropic persons, 
that it were a real increase of human happiness could all 
young men from the age of nineteen be covered under 
barrels, or rendered otherwise invisible, and there left 
to follow their lawful studies and callings till they 
emerged, sadder and wiser, at the age of twenty-five. 
With which suggestion, at least as considered in the 
light of a practical scheme, I need scarcely say that I in 
no wise coincide. Nevertheless it is plausibly urged 
that as young ladies are, to mankind, precisely the most 
delightful in those years, so young gentlemen do then 
attain their maximum of detestability. Such gawks are 
they, and foolish peacocks, and yet with such a vultur- 
ous hunger for self-indulgence, so obstinate, obstreper- 
ous, vain glorious ; in all senses so froward and so 
forward. " (Carlyle's "Sartor Resartus.") 

The nubile girl of eighteen treats her contemporary of 
the opposite sex with more condescension than defer- 
ence ; more patronizingly than would be becoming 
towards an equal. But he is not her equal; she has 
risen to the dignity of womanhood ; he is still distant 



36 MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 

from the realm of his manhood. This advantage in her 
youth she loses, however, in more advanced life ; for 
while he is still in the ripe season of his manhood, she 
has passed into maturity, after which vitality declines. 

The time and scale of growih, as already stated, is 
thus shown to have relation to the law of necessary con- 
tinuation of force, or of mental and physical capacity. 

In height and volume the two sexes differ; woman 
never attaining the stature of man, the average of her 
stature being one-sixth less than his. In her dimensions, 
and the relation of her organs, the following difference is 
also apparent. Transversely separated in halves, man's 
line of division would be at the separation of the lower 
limbs, while the line in woman would be higher. The 
shortness of her limbs is in part compensated for by 
greater length of neck and body, which induces a grace- 
ful undulation of movement in her walk. While nature 
has provided her with dimensions and forms adapted to 
the necessity of maternity, with room for the reception 
and indwelling of a rapidly growing guest, it has not 
neglected the attributes of symmetry and elegance. 

The breasts,- which in man remain in a rudimentary 
condition, in woman develop, become elevated, and 
marked by roundness of contour, fineness of texture and 
delicacy of color. These organs, so wonderfully organ- 
ized for the preparation and provision of the nourish- 
ment of her infant, give also added grace and elegance 
to woman's form. 

Her lower limbs are larger, rounder, and softer than 
man's. They are further apart, from the hips to the 
knees, and approach nearer together from the knee to 
the foot, than in man. The direction of her limbs corre- 



CHARACTERISTICS OF WOMAN. 37 

sponds to her wider basin, and is in harmony with the laws 
of equilibrium. This conformation manifestly expresses 
the preparations of nature for gestation and child-bearing. 

The foot and hand are smaller, plumper and more del- 
icate, and give a finish to an already beautiful body. 

Her bones are smaller, lighter and whiter ; their proc- 
esses less acute and less pronounced, more spongy, oily, 
and supple in organization. Her pelvis, or basin, is to 
be excepted from the above rule, for the side bones (in- 
nominata) are wider, and more oval than man's, giving 
to the lower trunk more breadth — a characteristic the 
uses of which we shall examine hereafter. 

The muscles attain a greater development and stand 
out in bolder relief in man. His large and superficial 
ones can be traced through their whole course, even from 
above the surface of the skin. The external unevenness 
in man's muscles is partly due to the absorption of adi- 
pose tissue, which is generally found in abundance 
around the muscle of woman at all ages, and of man 
only in early youth ; but, more particularly, to the greater 
development of each muscular fiber, from the greater 
exercise that man gives to it in his plays, his games, and 
his general habits. A muscle is a bundle of such fibers, 
larger in the centre than at each extremity. The num- 
ber of fibers composing a certain muscle in man need 
not be greater than that composing the same muscle in 
woman ; but, having attained a greater volume from the 
exercise above described, the muscle is proportionately 
larger, and marked by those elevations and tha,t firmness 
recognized as manifestations of better development. 
This uneven and knotty appearance evinces strength 
and power. 



3 8 MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 

The construction and functions of the muscles are the 
same in both sexes. The muscles of woman's face, 
however, respond more promptly to the emotions of her 
mind, which may be owing to her comparative powerless- 
ness in controlling mental impression. The muscles of 
her face being, also, less salient than those of man, lend 
her an attractive expression of sweetness and benevo- 
lence. Her skin is more delicate and finer, more sus- 
ceptible to the influence of air, or whatever object comes 
in contact with it. It is of a finer grain : — the capillary 
vessels entering it very freely — and of such whiteness 
that the blue of her veins is seen through the trans- 
parency of the tissue. The complexion of her skin is 
generally lighter than that of man, and rarely is its white 
and velvety surface protected with hair. 

The conformation of the chest of the two sexes is 
quite different; the man's lung is more conical, the apex 
being larger in woman, the base in man. Thus, while 
the chest of man grows broader downwards, in woman it 
is more elevated above, giving it the appearance of being 
fuller, while its contraction below is gradual r.nd grace- 
ful. Comparatively, her lungs are smaller and lie higher, 
a conformation tending to give her more abdominal 
room for organs which man does not possess. But 
while the lung of woman is smaller, it is more active, 
thus making up in energy what is lost in volume. The 
arch of her ribs, also, is more acute, so that at every 
inspiration her chest rises higher than that of man; and 
this fact is very noticeable in woman particularly when 
she is under strong emotion. The heart follows the 
same principle of organization ; for, while it is smaller 



CHARACTERISTICS OF WOMAN. 39 

in woman it beats quicker, thus, like the lungs, equili- 
brating the want of size by increase of energy. 

The digestive apparatus is also organized with the 
same view to a free and roomy abdominal cavity. The 
stomach is longer but smaller, the liver less voluminous, 
and the intestines shorter in proportion. 

There is nothing more beautiful in anatomy and phys- 
iology than this adaptation in. the organization of the 
body. It seems that nature had a reason for every 
change, every curve, every prominence; and it is so 
not only in the human frame but throughout creation, 
whether animate or inanimate. 

The voice, that mirror of the soul, is strikingly differ- 
ent in the two sexes ; being more flexible and of sweeter 
tone in woman. This flexibility of the vocal organs, as 
well as of all the muscles of her throat, enables woman 
to cultivate music with more facility. More women 
sing than men. In the acquirement of languages 
woman is an easy adept, while man struggles to imitate 
sounds he can scarcely ever produce. 

We have thus given some general points of difference 
found in the two sexes ; but the principal features which 
eminently distinguish woman from man are of course 
the organs which adapt her to perform the holy and 
responsible functions of maternity. The consideration 
of these we shall now enter upon, under a deep sense of 
the importance, the delicacy, and the vital interest of 
the subject, trusting that these conscientious observa- 
tions of an experienced physician, who writes as for his 
own wife and daughter, may be of real service to the 
mothers and daughters of our land. 



CHAPTER V. 

THE PELVIS, 
AND ITS RELATION TO WOMAN'S SAFETY. 

THE Pelvis is an important part of the skeleton in 
the study of the distinctive organs of woman. It 
is the bony basin, the outer edges of which form the hips, 
and which is spread out to uphold and support all the 
most important interior organs of the body. Behind, it 
commences at the lowest lumbar vertebra, that is, at the 
small of the back, and continues downwards to the end 
of the spine. Laterally, the hip-bones form its promi- 
nent parts, the sides of the basin sloping downwardly 
and inwardly, below the upper head of the thigh-bones. 
This would form a cone with its base upwards if it were 
closed in by bony structure in front, as it is on its sides 
and back. In front, however, the sides of the pelvis are 
open at the top, and coming down to meet each other 
are joined atthe lower extremity by two triangular arms, 
forming the pubis. Anatomically, all these bony parts 
are separate, each bearing a distinct name, such as " the 
Sacrum," behind, " Ossa Innominata," at the sides, and 
"Os Pubis," in front. The bones at the bottom of the 
pelvic basin, on which the body rests when in sitting 
posture, are called " Ischii." 

All the above named bones knit together constitute 
one firm body, called pelvis, or basin. The cavity within 
this basin is not regular or straight, being somewhat bent 



THE PELVIS. 4I 

and constricted in the middle like an old-fashioned bar- 
ber's basin. 

This constriction divides the cavity into two sections ; 
the upper one being called by anatomists the " greater," 
and the lower one the "lesser," or the "superior" and 
" inferior, straits." 

The walls of the abdomen close and complete the cav- 
ity in front. 

So far, this cavity has been spoken of as a distinct one, 
but in reality it is only a portion of the abdominal cav- 
ity, which reaches upward to the arch of the diaphragm 
at the base of the lungs. This great abdominal cavity, 
including that of the pelvis, contains above and on the 
right, the liver ; in the center and at the lower extremity 
of the breast bone, the stomach ; the spleen on the left; 
the kidneys behind, or about at the small of the back ; 
the intestines filling up the largest portion of the cavity 
in the center, and the bladder and the rectum lying at 
the lowest end of the funnel-shaped space. 

In woman, however, the womb occupies a space an 
inch or two below the navel, behind the small intestines 
and in front of the rectum. It lies about six inches 
above the entrance of the vagina, with which it connects, 
just as the small end of a pear (which is about the shape 
of the womb) would enter into a tube larger than its 
neck, but smaller than its body. In continuation with 
the upper end of the womb are the " Fallopian tubes " 
and the "ovaries," (the uses of which will be explained 
hereafter) which extend to the right and to the left, like 
the spread wings of a bat. The " ovaries " lie in the 
hollow on each side of the abdomen, formed by the pro- 
jection of the hip-bones, about two inches below the 



42 MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 

crest. All these various organs are held in position in 
the abdominal cavity by a membrane called the " Peri- 
toneum ;" besides all these, there are arteries, veins, 
nerves, lymphatics, &c. 

The pelvis is somewhat different in the two sexes, for 
very pertinent reasons. As a whole, the pelvis in the 
male is smaller but deeper; the bones are thicker. There 
are other, minor, differences in the construction and the 
diameters, but they would be of little interest or impor- 
tance to the reader. 

The two lower limbs are attached to the sides of the 
bony circle formed by the pelvis, and support, in the 
erect posture, all the weight of the upper part of the 
body. 

Another important function of the pelvis is to en- 
close and protect the generative and digestive organs. 
During gestation, it sustains and gives a proper direction 
to the womb; and in labor it affords a safe passage to 
the child. 

From this description, is evident the necessity to wo- 
man of perfection in the construction of the pelvis, who 
is to give birth to the child. 

Since the pelvis has important relation to child- 
bearing, it follows that in early life great care should be 
exercised that proper proportions may be secured, and 
deviations from normal conditions obviated. Its cavi- 
ties and outlets are regarded by the physician with great 
interest, for upon them depends, in a great measure, the 
safety of the mother at delivery. Like all other bony 
structures, its development is gradual until the age of 
eighteen, and even later, when ossification seems to have 
reached its degree of perfection. During all these years 



THE PELVIS. 43 

of growth, the various bones of the pelvis are held to- 
gether by muscular attachments, and by cartilaginous 
articulations. During the tender age of a girl, a fall, or 
badly applied vestments, causing pressure on any part of 
it, may disturb the normal position of the respective 
bones, and produce a distorted pelvis. Such an unfor- 
tunate occurrence might prove a serious malformation, 
that would impede the natural progress of labor. 

At birth, the pelvis is extremely narrow and elongated, 
and of such inconceivably small dimensions that its cav- 
ity cannot contain several of the organs afterwards found 
in it; from which circumstance the protuberance of the 
abdomen, observed in the foetus and in children at term, 
in great measure results. It is stated by anatomists, 
however, that its form changes by degrees as little girls 
advance in age ; thus it is that the diameter from front 
to back, which measures two and seven-eighths (2 7-8) 
inches at nine years, will gradually increase until at the 
eighteenth year it will have acquired a length of four 
inches; w r hile the transverse diameter, which at nine 
years of age is found to be about three inches, at eighteen 
years is four and one-half (4 1-2) inches. 

It is not enough to bear in mind the general form or 
construction of the pelvis as already given; its mode of 
development should also claim attention. As the pelvis 
is not a single bone completed at birth, but, on the con- 
trary, a system of bones whose union is accomplished 
only in years after birth, it devolves upon us to know its 
manner of growth, that it may not be exposed to acci- 
dents* to distortions, or to deviations. 

We find that at birth and for several years after, the 
pelvis is divided into separate parts, each part being 



44 MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 

kept in juxtaposition to the others by elastic, fibrous lig- 
aments and cartilages. There are no less than six such 
parts thus united, three on each side, having five distinct 
articulations or joints. It is true that these articulations 
do not allow as much freedom of motion as those of the 
elbows, knees, or other bony surfaces of the skeleton ; 
but they are nevertheless movable, sliding one on the 
other and easily bent by compression, particularly during 
the tender period preceding puberty, and more or less, 
also, until the age of eighteen, when ossification has 
firmly secured the several parts together. 

Mothers acquainted with these facts could not fail to 
appreciate our solicitude regarding the normal growth of 
this part of the body of woman. The tender care of the 
mother should therefore commence immediately after the 
birth of a girl. At this time it is usual for the nurse, for 
the sake of neatness, to apply a napkin to the child ; but 
this napkin is often a cumbrous affair, badly adjusted. 
It is generally folded in a triangular form, the longest 
side drawn over the hips around the back and pinned in 
front of the abdomen. We have already stated that at 
this time of life the little pelvis is so incompletely devel- 
oped, that the womb of a girl is out of its cavity and the 
protection of its bones. If that napkin is coarse and 
heavy, clumsily applied, or too tight around the abdo- 
men, it may be that undue pressure is exerted over the 
prominence of the abdomen, thus causing the womb to 
descend, and induce, even at this early age, a displace- 
ment of that organ, which in turn may press upon the 
bladder, disabling the child from holding its water for a 
longer period than an hour. The frequent micturitions of 
infant girls may be due partly to this unsuspected pressure. 



THE PELVIS. 45 

It is known, moreover, that at the tender age of in- 
fancy, the bones do not contain enough earthy matter to 
render them hard, and consequently they are pliable and 
easily bent. The broad bones of the pelvis are oblique ; 
hence, constriction around the body may cause them to 
bend, thus changing the direction of growth, so that, in- 
stead of growing outwardly, they may be made to grow 
inwardly, restricting the development of the cavity to 
its minimum, instead of encouraging its width to the 
maximum. 

In consideration of the above, the attendants should 
see that the bands and napkins applied to infants be so 
loose as to make no pressure whatever. Allowing a nap- 
kin to be a necessity for cleanliness, and even for de- 
cency, let it be pinned to the undershirt, or to a loose 
belt held in position by suspenders. 

This freedom, so much recommended for the proper 
development of the pelvis, is not to be neglected even 
later, when girls attain the age which ushers them into 
society that awakens in the mind a desire for beauty of 
form, of manner, and of dress, for then they improperly 
lace their waists, carry weight upon their hips, and in 
various ways compress the surface and circumference of 
the pelvis. 

When treating the subject of dress in other parts of 
this book, we shall enter more fully into a description of 
the ills attendant upon improper modes of dressing. 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE WOMB. 

IN his work on Maternity, a book prepared for the 
guidance of young married women, the author has 
given a limited description of the womb and its append- 
ages. Were it not that he conscientiously feels that 
even the younger woman ought to be acquainted with 
an organization peculiar to her sex, he would abstain 
from further description of the specifically female 
organs. It would be difficult for her to fully distinguish 
the unnatural from the true functions of those organs, 
without some knowledge of their peculiar construction 
and relations. From the moment that the girl becomes 
the woman, her moral and physical life becomes de- 
pendent upon a regular, unobstructed action of these 
organs; and it would seem that too much could not be 
said to enable her to foresee or prevent accidents, and 
to maintain the integrity of their relations. 

The womb, in its original state, is a pear-shaped body, 
flattened before and behind, situated in the cavity of the 
pelvis, between the upper part of the bladder and the 
rectum. It is retained in its position by round and 
broad ligaments on each side, and projects downward 
into the upper end of the vagina. It lies obliquely, its 
upper end, or base, being directed upwards and for- 
wards; its lower end, or apex, downwards and back- 
wards, in the line with the inlet of the pelvis, forming an 



THE WOMB. 47 

-angle with the vagina, the downward and forward direc- 
tion of which corresponds to the cavity and outlet of 
the pelvis. 

The uterus or womb measures about three inches in 
length, two in breadth at its upper part, and an inch in 
thickness, and weighs from an ounce to an ounce and a 
half. 

This pear-shaped body, for the sake of convenience, 
is by anatomists divided into two parts, the upper of 
which, called the body, is the largest, and comprises 
more than one-half the total length ; the other, or lower 
portion, styled the neck, is smaller ; a slight circular con- 
striction serves to indicate externally the point of union 
of the body with the neck. 

Essentially, the womb is a thick, powerful, and elastic 
muscle, which can become so expanded as to be as thin 
as a sheet of paper. During pregnancy it increases in 
size and weight, and becomes so dilated as to enclose 
within its cavity a child weighing twelve pounds or 
more, an after-birth (the spongy tissue which connects 
the child in the womb with its mother) weighing three 
or four pounds, and a pint or more of water. Its power 
of contractility also is so great, that during the process 
of labor it can expel all of the contents mentioned 
above, and reduce itself to a size very little beyond its 
original one before pregnancy. 

Its cavity is lined by a thin, smooth and closely 
adherent mucous membrane, which continues through 
the fallopian tubes, and through its mcuth connects with 
the mucous lining of the vagina. 

The cavity of the uterus in its unoccupied condition 
is small in comparison with the size of the organ. If 



4 8 MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS, 

cut in two, from side to side, its cavity would represent 
a triangular fissure, two angles of which would be in 
continuation with the fallopian tubes at each side of the 
upper end of the uterus, and one with its mouth at the 
lower end. In the state of vacuity it could hardly be 
said that the womb contains a cavity, for the uterine 
walls are in contact throughout their extent, and hardly 
show more than a line of separation. 

The form, size, and situation of the uterus vary at 
different periods of life and condition. At birth, it lies 
higher in the cavity of the abdomen, and its neck is 
considerably larger than its body. At puberty, it has 
attained the shape and proportions above described. 
During and after menstruation, the organ is enlarged 
and more vascular. During pregnancy, it increases in 
weight from one pound and a half to three pounds. 
After child-birth it nearly regains its usual size, weigh- 
ing from two to three ounces, its cavity, however, 
remaining larger than in the former state. In old age it 
becomes shrunken, paler, and denser in texture. 



CHAPTER VII. 

FALLOPIAN TUBES AND OVARIES. 

THE fallopian tubes are named from Fallopius, an 
Italian physician, who discovered them. Their 
function is to convey the human egg from the ovaries 
(the organs where it is developed) to the womb. To 
convey a distinct idea of the formation of these tubes 
and their relations to the womb, let us imagine the trunk 
of a man parted from head and neck, and separated 
from the pelvis at the waist ; the fallopian tubes would 
be represented by the two arms spread right and left, 
even to the ends of the fingers. Let us imagine the 
cavity of the trunk to be continued through the arms, 
to the center of the palm of the hand, and we have 
a figure, which, although much larger in proportion, 
is not unlike that of the womb with its fallopian tubes. 
Now, to complete the similitude, let us imagine a string, 
starting from the armpit and hanging loosely by one of 
the fingers of the outstretched hand. On this string, 
somewhat nearer the hand than the armpit let there be 
a little bag containing from ten to twenty grains, from 
the size of a pin's head to a pea ; this bag represents an 
ovary; and we thus have a complete representation of 
the womb and its appendages. 

Each fallopian tube is about four inches in length, 
having a canal, exceedingly minute, but which gradually 
widens into a trumpet-shaped extremity. Its outer end 



S o MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 

terminates in fringe-like processes (the ringers of the 
above figure), to one of which is connected the outer 
end of the ovary. Here we are reminded again of the 
hand in a semiflex condition, making of the palm a hol- 
low whenever so required for the reception of an egg 
that has parted from the ovary. 

It is physiologically stated, that once a month one of 
these eggs bursts from its prison in the ovary, and 
makes its way to the fimbriated .or fringed end of the 
fallopian tube, where it is received and held, and, 
through a vibratory motion of these fringes, pushed for- 
ward through the whole length of the fallopian tube, to 
the cavity of the womb. 

The ovaries are elongated, oval-shaped bodies, situ- 
ated on the string already described, on each side of the 
womb. They are about an inch and one-half in length, 
three-quarters of an inch in thickness', and weigh from 
an eighth to a quarter of an ounce. They contain the 
so-called " Graafian " vesicles or cells, each enclosing an 
egg. As already stated, each ovary is supplied with ten 
or twenty of these vesicles, varying in size according to 
their state of development. 

The ovum, or egg, is a small spherical body, situated 
near the center of the immature graafian vesicle, grad- 
ually approaching its walls as the vesicle matures. 
When ripe, the vesicle yields, leaving the egg free. 
Compared with the common knowledge regarding eggs 
of fowls or fishes, one might suppose that the human 
egg would in size be proportionate to those of the 
above-mentioned animals. But this is far frcm being 
-the case, as the human egg is so minute that it would 
take two or three hundred in a line to make an inch in 



FALLOPIAN TUBES AND OVARIES, 5I 

length. In fact they are so small that they are not 
detected by the naked eye, and the assistance of a 
microscope is required to discover and examine them. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE BREASTS. 

THE Breasts are classified by anatomists and physi- 
ologists among the generative organs of woman; 
and properly so, -for their development and functions are 
simultaneous with those of the organs already described. 
The sympathy and relation between them are so inti- 
mate, that one is hardly affected without the other. 
While the womb retains and nourishes the offspring for 
nine months, the breasts are preparing to fulfill the same 
duty of supplying nutrition to the child for a year or 
more after it shall have left its internal abode in its 
mother's womb, to enter upon that outer life where it is 
to grow according to its species for the completion of 
the mission assigned to it. 

The breasts are two in number; hemispherical in 
shape, representing a flattened cone with the base upon 
the chest. They are rudimentary in man, and in the 
young girl, but become developed in the latter at the 
period of her puberty. Their size and shape vary in 
different individuals and in women of different races. 
They also vary in weight and dimensions at different 
periods of life and under different circumstances. 
They increase during pregnancy, and especially after 
delivery, and become wasted away in old age. The left 
breast is generally a little larger than the right. 

On the outer surface, and just below the center, is a 



THE BREASTS. 53 

small conical prominence named "the nipple," which is 
of darker color than the surface of the breast, and is 
surrounded by a circle called "areola" having also a 
deeper tint than the surrounding skin. The shades of 
color of both the areola and the nipple vary according 
to the complexion of the subject, being of a delicate 
rosy hue in blondes, and much darker in brunettes. 
This color is of importance, inasmuch as it is affected 
by pregnancy, providing a reliable sign by which the 
physician determines whether the woman is in a state of 
pregnancy or not. 

The dimensions and shape of the nipples vary also in 
different individuals, in some women being very slightly 
developed, in others very largely, while in some they are 
so small as to hardly come to the surface of the breast. 
The nipple is traversed from base to summit by lactifer- 
ous ducts, fifteen or twenty in number, which open by 
as many minute orifices near the free extremity of the 
organ. The breasts contain each a " mammary gland," 
properly so called. This gland is divided into several 
lobes and has the appearance of a bunch of grapes. 
Each lobe is composed of an aggregation of a number of 
lobules, like grapes attached to small stems. This rami- 
fication of small stems unite in five or six principal ones 
which end at the nipple. The lobules secrete the milk, 
and the stems are the lactiferous ducts that convey it to 
the nipple. 

A proportionately well developed breast is an orna- 
ment to woman's figure. A well defined throat, blend- 
ing with the elliptical lines of a well rounded breast, add 
grace and attraction to her chest. It is not only a 
beauty of presence, but one suggestive of perfection in 



54 



MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 



the attributes of woman in her relation to maternity. 
Woman without a breast is seldom prolific, and furnishes 
no food to her offspring. The want of development of 
these organs is more often due to mismanagement than 
to constitutional causes. Poor, laboring women are sel- 
dom deficient in them; fashionable women are seldom 
in possession of well developed ones. Why? Girls, 
who from an early period assist their parents in the 
daily labor of self-sustenance, exercise their arms, the 
muscles of the chest generally — while ladies' daughters 
are engaged in trifling occupations which require but a 
moderate motion of their fingers. It requires more than 
finger-work to favor an expansion of the chest, and an 
elevation of all the muscles that cover it. The " Pec- 
toralis Major," which, more than other muscle, is 
engaged in every motion of the chest, is inserted in the 
upper part of the arm ; every flex or reflex action of the 
arm, in pulling, or lifting, is accomplished with the 
assistance of that muscle. As muscular exercise is con- 
ducive to muscular development, it follows that the girl 
who kneads her bread, sweeps her floor, makes her bed, 
digs in her garden, lifts books, chairs and tables, or 
otherwise works in her household, has a better chance 
for a full, well-rounded chest and throat, than the girl 
whose vocation is at the writing desk, or who spends her 
precious time at playing with the tips of her fingers in 
her attempts to force an unwilling needle through silk 
or cashmere. 

The above paragraph is not intended as an appeal to 
vanity, but to a just conception of strength, health and 
beauty. A chest well covered with muscles, and even 
with fat, is better protected from climatic vicissitudes, 



THE BREASTS, 55 

from cold and dampness, than the poor, thin, undevel- 
oped one, that every breath of air threatens with coughs 
and pulmonary irritations. 

If the mandates of fashionable society are such as to 
dishonor the home-labor that has been the pride of our 
grandmothers, it is evident that something must be done 
in place of it, to secure the health of the children of 
these elegant devotees of fashion and mannerism. 

Sad as it may seem, there are mothers who see more 
dignity in the swinging of dumb-bells than in kneading 
bread ; others that consider pulling oneself up by rings 
cr ropes a fitter employment for a lady-like girl than the 
lifting of a mattrass, or tucking in bed-covers; others, in 
fact, who think it more refined to play than to work. 

It might be in vain to tell these ladies that their girls 
would lose nothing, but gain a great deal, morally, if, in 
the exercise for their health, they would accomplish 
something in the way of necessary labor that otherwise 
must be done and paid for. 

Not professing to give a moral lecture on this subject, 
but to encourage all women in securing health and 
strength for their daughters, we will agree that if they 
will not work, they must play. For such, then, as find 
no comfort or attraction in home duties, we would sug- 
gest that their pleasures be of a nature that will other- 
wise supply to them the amount of exercise necessary to 
healthful growth and luxuriant development. For this 
purpose we would suggest rowing, tossing balls, croquet, 
quoits, graces, at seasons when such exercises can be 
performed without exposure to inclemency of weather, 
or to high and low temperatures. At other times, girls 
might attend well-regulated schools of gymnastics. In 



56 MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 

connection with these exercises, it should not be forgot- 
ten that open air contributes that important element, 
oxygen, which stimulates the circulation, increases vital- 
ity, and supplies the decarbonizing agent of the body. 

The mammary glands within the breasts, like all the 
generative organs, remain dormant until the evolution of 
puberty, when they at once respond to the general ex- 
citation of the system. Their lobes become more and 
more voluminous, and the arterial circulation within them 
more active. Consequently the breasts then enlarge 
in proportion, and become very sensitive, in sympathy 
with the uterine organs, which now, for the first time, 
give evidence of life. From this time forward the breasts 
will be subject to monthly changes. They will swell and 
harden, become tender to the touch, and be the seat at 
times of prickly sensations and fugitive pains. Even the 
nipples and the areola surrounding them will assume a 
deeper shade of color, and be subject to erections. 

The development of these organs will now be gradual, 
but continuous, until the age of eighteen, when woman 
seems to have attained a stage of completeness in all her 
organs. It is during this period of growth that care 
should be taken not to interfere with its progress, and 
when everything calculated to bear with undue pressure 
upon those organs should be avoided. It is well known 
that pressure on soft tissue will induce absorption and 
absolute diminution of volume. Pressure in this case 
will also prevent the deposit of adipose tissue, which is 
thrown around the glands for their protection, and which 
gives the breast roundness, grace of form, and delicacy 
of texture; it also prevents the growth of the glands 
whose functions are so important in the mother. Pres- 



THE BREASTS. cy 

sure will rob the breasts of that elevation which imparts 
beauty to the contour of woman's bust, and flatten them 
into a shapeless mass. It will compress the nipples, thus 
rendering nursing difficult, painful, and even perhaps 
impossible. 

A finely developed breast needs no mechanical sup- 
port; but a gentle support, without pressure, may be 
allowed in cases of excessive development. 

The grace and symmetry of a good figure is not de- 
termined by a contracted waist, but by well developed 
chest and breasts. A flat, narrow chest is not handsome, 
and all the cunning of the art of skilled dress-makers 
cannot improve it. On the contrary, the devices used 
by these fashionable moulders tend only to diminish the 
already diminutive organs. Padding is only a form of 
compression, and cannot fail to induce absorption and 
prevent expansion. 

We have dwelt on this subject to impress upon girls 
the physiological necessities which are required both to 
preserve their health and to add to their beauty, which 
is an element of success in their field of struggle. 

The young girl, who, as has been said, " Heretofore 
was but an equivocal being, without sex," henceforth be- 
comes woman, recognized as such, by the symmetrical 
development of her body, by the perfection of her pro- 
portions and elegance of form, by the delicacy of her 
features, by the harmony of her voice, by her sensibili- 
ties and affections; nay, by her character, tastes, dispo- 
sition, and habits, and even by her maladies. 

A metamorphosis has taken place, striking, but at- 
tractive, that puts her at the head of creation in all that 
is beautiful and lovely. She enters upon her life-work 



s 8 MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 

already a conqueror, winning all around her by the 
glance of her eye, by the tenderness of her heart, by the 
fertility of her brain, and by the noble inspiration of her 
soul. 



CHAPTER IX. 

TEMPERAMENTS. 
THE GUIDE FOR MORAL AND PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 

A KNOWLEDGE of individual temperament is in- 
dispensable to a correct understanding of individ- 
ual cases, and to the formation of proper judgment in 
administering to their wants. A mechanic must know 
his metal before he can select the instruments for his 
work. To the housewife a cloth is a cloth, truly ; but 
before treating it to a wash, she will be sure to ob- 
serve whether it be of silk, of linen, or of cotton. Ex- 
perience has taught her that the same treatment will not 
suit them all ; that under it, one would shrink, while , 
another would stretch ; one retain its color, another fade. 
In other words, her practical good sense would suggest 
such treatment as is suited to the peculiar material of 
the cloth. 

Without fear of offending the dignity of the medical 
profession, we will liken the physician to that sensible 
person. " One man's meat is another man's poison," is 
an old proverb. Experience has taught the fact ; science 
has endeavored to explain it. A person is a person, in- 
deed ; but wherein one person differs from another 
requires the closest and most earnest investigation before 
one can suggest and administer remedial agencies in- 
tended to preserve the integrity of the health, or procure 
its recovery when once lost. 



60 MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 

It is on account of this truth, and not of professional 
vanity or personal interests, that physicians universally 
condemn the nostrums advertised by conceited donkeys 
and venal conjurors to cure specific diseases. To the 
thinker, this baneful practice is a mystery of our civiliza- 
tion. Rivers of treacherous mixtures, and tons of illy 
adapted pills, emblazoned with the subtle devices and 
impudent pretensions of covetousness, find their way 
into the delicate human stomach, which, if it had voice, 
would give a shriek of horror that w r ould reach the inner- 
most recesses of the inhabited earth. The only apology 
that can be made for this foolhardiness is, that when man 
is sick, he is also so mentally deteriorated as to be unable 
to resist the baited offer, which, in a healthy condition, 
he would perceive to contain nothing but the cupidity of 
the inventor. No person is qualified to suggest a treat- 
ment for disease who is not thoroughly acquainted with 
" all its symptoms, and with all predisposing causes de- 
rived from the temperament of the patient as well. 

Temperament is denned by Dunglison as follows : 
" The peculiar mental and physical character of an in- 
dividual, arising from the relations and proportions be- 
tween the constituent parts of the body; natural organi- 
zation or constitution." Hufeland says: "Constitutions 
or temperaments establish among men profound distinc- 
tions, by which not only the sense of the inner life, but 
also its relation with the exterior, through which it is in- 
fluenced, are affected in a different manner. And whether 
it is in the humors, in the solids, or in the mind, as medi- 
cal men from the earliest periods have contended, it 
avails but little ; for forces of matter are so intimately 
connected that one determines the other, and that in cer- 



TEMPERA MEN TS. 6 1 

tain organizations man will be predisposed to certain 
maladies, his reason and mental disposition to a par- 
ticular tendency, and when such an organization is con- 
genital [born with the person] its manifestations will 
last for the whole life." 

The question of temperaments engaged the attention 
of philosophers in the earliest times of the Romans and 
the Greeks. The many discussions and treatises on the 
subject by learned men, although showing various and 
even contradictory opinions as to causes, nevertheless 
confirm the reality of its existence, and the importance 
of understanding it. 

Temperaments have been classified and sub-classified, 
until they reach the number of fifteen or more, but it 
will suffice the purpose of this book to treat of the 
following classification : the sanguine, the lymphatic, the 
bilious, the nervous, and the mixed. 

SANGUINE TEMPERAMENT. 

The external manifestation of the sanguine tempera- 
ment is described by Hufeland as follows, "Its promi- 
nent character is, great and changeable excitability, 
impressionable by all that causes mental or physical 
irritation. A person possessed of this temperament is 
fond of gaiety and the pleasures of life; he is predis- 
posed to* good humor, politeness and sociability; he is 
distinguished by good intentions, but also by lack of 
perseverance and firmness. Physically his blood circu- 
lates freely and is reproduced easily, even after great 
loss of it; his tendency is plethora and congestion. 
His heart and lungs are the most vulnerable organs ; he 
is more liable to inflammatory diseases than to chronic ; 



$ 2 MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS, 

the crisis in disease is easy ; altogether it is a good 
temperament. '' 

One endowed with this temperament should avoid 
all sources of irritation, stimulating drinks, excessive, 
fatigue, violent passions, the heat of the sun, warm and 
confined atmospheres. Vegetable food and water should 
be the greatest portion of his dietary. De Ponsan 
properly says : " The woman of sanguine temperament 
thrives better in a temperate atmosphere than in a dry 
and changeable one. While she should dress herself 
according to atmospheric vicissitudes, she will not need 
heavy garments, but uniformity in their application. 
She should bathe in water not too hot nor too cold. In 
her diet she should eschew succulent and copious animal 
food, particularly when highly seasoned ; all wines, 
liquors, coffee and tea. In summer she should temper 
her thirst by slightly acidulated beverages ; should take 
moderate exercise, attend to her excretions, occupy herself 
in work that does not excite the mind or inflame the 
imagination." Her exercise, although moderate, should 
be continuous ; for muscular activity, if not excessive, 
prevents engorgement of blood. She should avoid 
heated rooms, and live in well ventilated apartments, to 
prevent determination of blood to the head. In this 
manner she will be free from the congestive headaches 
so common in plethoric women. Her menstruation will 
be copious and highly colored. 

LYMPHATIC TEMPERAMENT. 

The lymphatic temperament may be said^ to be the 
opposite of the sanguine, being characterized by want of 
sensibility and by inertia. The reactions either of sick- 



TEMPERAMENTS, 63 

ness or of mental disturbance are scarcely ever violent. 
" The intellectual faculties are not easily impressed or 
excited into action; comprehension is slow, and under- 
takings are not entered into with avidity. Indeed, it 
may be said that a general state of torpidity pervades 
both the moral and the physical." Persons of this tem- 
perament are liable to catarrhal diseases, to obstruc- 
tions of the intestines, to muscular relaxation, and 
obesity; their appearance is characterized by red or 
blonde hair of fine texture, blue eyes, white and velvety 
skin, soft flesh, pale lips, and often by a considerable 
development of nose, lips, ears, hands, and feet. 
I Women of this temperament are generally affected by 
that discharge of white mucus called leucorrhcea. 

The regimen for lymphatic temperaments should be to 
force the general inertia into activity; hence walking, 
riding, boating, out-door games, and even gymnastics 
should be resorted to frequently. " The diet forbidden 
in the sanguine temperament would be very appropriate 
in the lymphatic. ,, To such a temperament a shock, even 
a misfortune, may prove sanitary for the exertion that it 
may inspire. Persons thus constituted should cultivate 
cheerful company, occupation, or amusements, travel, or 
occupy themselves in anything that promotes energy, 
both corporal and mental. 

Ponsan, a hygienic philosopher, suggests for persons, 
and particularly for women, of this temperament, " a dry 
atmosphere, well lighted and well aired habitations, 
warm clothing, a moderate use of cold baths, stimulating 
food, such as well-seasoned meats, a moderate use of 
good w r ine, little coffee, and all diaphoretic beverages 
having the power to increase perspiration. The skin to 



64 MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 

be kept active by dry friction and the muscular system 
by exercise, and not too much sleep." 

Such persons, having regard for the regimen above 
described, should be careful in not being too liberal in 
taking medicaments calculated to debilitate by loss of 
blood, by purging or otherwise. A visit to the country 
abounding in ozone, exercise on horseback, boating, out- 
door games, hunting, &c, will greatly assist in the pro- 
motion of that vigor so necessary to the already torpid 
constitution. 

BILIOUS TEMPERAMENT. 

The liver and the biliary apparatus seem to be pecu- 
liarly sensitive, and easily excited to endure activity in 
this temperament. 

" Persons thus organized are generally passionate, 
violent, given to anger. Impulsive, they will undertake 
things with more ardor than prudence, act w T ith great 
precipitation, and, therefore, are capable of heroism or 
of evil. Physically they are of brown complexion, their 
hair is black, the skin hard, and the muscles dry. Path- 
ologically they are predisposed to an abundant secretion 
of bile, and to all diseases depending upon biliary de- 
rangements ; to sanguinous congestions, to inflamma- 
tions ; such diseases appearing almost always in a violent 
manner. Persons of such organization should be edu- 
cated to conquer their irascibility and their passionate 
disposition, by a proper and timely appeal to their 
reason, which is not defective in intellectual strength. 
They should be taught to cultivate the affections, for it 
is through them that they may possibly be able to curb 
the vehemence of their temper." They should avoid 



TEMPERA MEN TS. 6 5 

contentions and litigations, and all occurrences likely to 
lead to warm discussions. Their diet should be drawn 
from the vegetable rather than from the animal king- 
dom ; they should not indulge in stimulating beverages, 
but make free use of acids — either in water or otherwise. 
They should eat plenty of fruit, attend carefully to their 
excretions, and never allow themselves to become consti- 
pated. 

It is in this temperament that physical exercise is par- 
ticularly demanded. A sedentary life is baneful; while 
open air activity is pre-eminently healthful. Systematic 
cold bathing and dry frictions will also contribute to 
their comfort. 

NERVOUS TEMPERAMENT. 

This temperament is common among women. It is 
detected in persons of " lean and dry complexions, small 
development of muscle, an expressive and changeable 
countenance, a brilliant eye, high forehead, quick move- 
ment. They receive impressions quickly and strongly, 
exhibit an energy often disproportionate to their strength, 
often depressed without commensurate reason. The dis- 
tinctive signs of this temperament are: quickness of 
motion, mobility of expression, intellectual vigor, excess- 
ive activity of the sympathies, and proneness to the 
animal passions.'' 

A woman thus organized should be habituated to sys- 
tematic labor and occupation. She should breathe a 
temperate atmosphere, but rather moist; live in valleys 
rather than mountains; near the water rather than in 
elevated localities. Her bath should be tepid; her diet 
of young meats and gelatine, of fruits, and everything 



66 MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 

digestible, precluding spices, alcohol, and, particularly, 
tea and coffee, A little wine may not be inadmissible, 
but her beverage should be water, sometimes tempered 
with mucilaginous substances. Exercise should never be 
carried to excess, for the reaction would be weakness. 
She should refrain from the stimulation of her passions, 
seeking calmness and uniformity of life. She should 
avoid all that is calculated to excite the nervous system, 
and, particularly, all that over-stimulates the intellectual 
faculties and immoderately excites the sympathies. 
"Moderation ought to be the motto that is to guide her 
in all her thoughts, feelings and actions.' ' (Ponsan.) 

The nervous system is self-consuming; hence persons 
in whom this constitutional trait predominates should 
add no preventable excitements, in order to avoid a too 
early consumption of vital force. 

MIXED TEMPERAMENTS. 

The temperaments are not always so distinct as 
described. There are persons in whom two of the 
above named temperaments are apparently mixed, and 
they are then denominated as sanguine-nervous, 
lymphatico-nervous, bilious-nervous, bilious-sanguine, 
etc. 

When this is the case, the hygienic treatment should 
be selected according to the combination as found. 

It has already been stated that the nervous tempera- 
ment predominates among women, and as this work is 
especially dedicated to them, a further expression of its 
necessities may not be superfluous. 

When the utero-generative system is endowed with 
excessive sensibility, " it should be calmed by regimen 



TEMPERAMENTS. 67 

adapted to nervous temperament, and by the avoidance 
in childhood of all that might stimulate precocious 
desires. In the adult, all that disposes to amorous pas- 
sions, to suspicious attachments, to questionable dramas 
or pictures, to free conversations, and to all spectacular 
"representations of doubtful propriety. When, however, 
apathy predominates in the generative system, strength- 
ening diets, horseback riding, boating, walking, stimu- 
lating baths should be adopted." 

This sketch of temperaments, although necessarily 
superficial, should be carefully considered by everyone 
having the charge of children; for if the modification 
of natural propensities is possible, through systematic 
hygiene, it is possible only during the elastic period of 
youth. Age hardens these predispositions into perma- 
nency. The experienced husbandman trains his young 
trees before they attain such proportions and such 
strength as to have become unwieldy ; so the educator 
should early and carefully examine the predominant 
inclinations of pupils, lest they become inured to ways 
that are crooked, and habits that are disastrous. Proper 
management in time often saves young people from 
indulgences that are inconsistent with health and happi- 
ness. 

It is especially for girls that we plead, as their nervous 
susceptibility is greater. City life and the habits of 
people of affluence are those of indulgence, not only in 
the epicurism of the table, but also in surcharging the 
imagination. It is no wonder, then, that physicians find 
much occupation among this class of women, who are 
generally affected by diseases sprung from a too early 
demand upon their vitality. " Female diseases," vul- 



6S MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 

garly so called, are more common among these than 
among women inhabiting the country. Puberty comes 
to them sooner; so does child-bearing; so do uterine 
affections; so does old age; so does death. Confined 
to heated rooms, devoted to tyrannical fashion, stimu- 
lated by too early and complex studies; drinking tea, 
coffee, and wines ; eating meats, spices, and gravies ; 
reading romantic literature ; attending the theater and 
the ball room; exposed to vanity and allurements of 
every kind, the girl, like a plant, is forced into an early 
flowering season and premature decay. Many of the 
practicing physicians would be compelled to find 
employment in other pursuits, were it not for the head- 
aches, backaches, debility ; the congestions, ulcerations 
and displacements of the womb ; the irregular or pain- 
ful menstruation ; the lung troubles, that abound among 
the women of populous cities. 

The proof that these natural temperaments are modi- 
fied by education and habits is found in the fact that 
certain temperaments prevail in certain countries, while 
they do not prevail in others. Locality, social condition, 
and climate have as much relation to those modifications 
as habits, diet, &c. Thus, in the United States, the 
nervous temperament predominates; while in Germany 
the lymphatic, in Italy the sanguine, prevail. 

Wealth is also, in part, responsible for these physiologi- 
cal deviations. The abuse of stimulants in this abound- 
ing land is greatly due to the ability of every man to 
purchase them. Dyspepsia, so common in America, and 
which drives so many of our citizens to Europe in quest 
of health, is greatly due to the large and rich provisions 
of the American table. Thousands of American women, 



TEMPERAMENTS. 6g 

permanent valetudinarians, would enjoy uninterrupted 
health if the luxuries and comforts of life were not so 
easily obtained; if occupation were a necessity, and the 
use of coffee, tea and stimulating diets were impossible. 
Women that can ride do not walk; those that are allowed 
to kill time by reading romances do not work. The 
sun, that revivifying element of our creation, is shunned, 
because it bronzes their pallid complexion, the wind be- 
cause it chaps their skin, labor because it enlarges their 
hands; and all this, because they have money to pay 
menials to do their work and obey their behests. 
Wealth will deteriorate the physical nature of the Amer- 
ican people as it has done that of other nations before 
them. 

In nations where large populations exist and wealth 
is greatly subdivided, these luxuries are impossible, and 
their people enjoy the benefit of the deprivation. Their 
habitations are kept cool through inability to provide 
fuel; and the same reason renders them prudent in the 
provision of the table, and less indulgent in those social 
pleasures which, when carried to excess, lead to disturb- 
ances in the human economy. Under that stringency, 
however forced upon them by circumstances, they grow 
healthy and strong, and are seldom affected by chronic 
ailments. 



CHAPTER X. 

PUBERTY : 
THE THRESHOLD OF WOMANHOOD- 

THE course of human life has by physiologists and 
psychologists been divided into four stages, name- 
ly : Infancy, Adolescence, Virility, Dementia. 

This division is somewhat arbitrary, for the exact lines 
of demarcation are imaginary at best. That there are 
in life periods sufficiently distinct to be appreciated by 
the intellect of man, there is no doubt; but exactly 
where they commence and end, it is as impossible to tell 
as to fix the dividing line between two States without a 
positive knowledge of the topography, and of the meas- 
urements of limitation. Yet a traveller, in a train of 
cars running from New York to San Francisco, although 
not able to tell exactly where and when he crosses the 
boundary line between State and State, will observe 
from time to time a difference in the architectural style 
of dwellings, in the dress, manner and pursuits of the 
people, sufficient to suggest to his mind that^ in the 
progress of his travels, he has crossed boundaries 
between States, or sections of the country. He has met 
no sentry and no custom house officer at each border to 
startle him into a knowledge of such fact, because, 
although the States are many, the country is one ; yet 
his intelligence and power of observation have gradually 



PUBERTY. 



71 



brought him into that consciousness of change, which 
upon inquiry he is assured to be really a transition from 
one State to another. So it is in the long run. of life; 
there is no distinct line of demarcation between one 
stage and another; but, unconsciously to us, these 
changes pass under our eyes, until an occurrence, even 
of trifling importance, makes us aware that the girl of 
fifteen thinks and acts differently from what she did, or 
would have done, at ten. We moreover become aware, 
as our mind is awakened to this fact, that this change is 
not transient, but, on the contrary, positive and perma- 
nent. Her demands, her necessities, have undergone 
real modifications, and the physiologist and psychologist 
mark this as a new era, just as the traveller decides in 
his own mind that he has truly entered a new dominion. 
These periods or stages of life are observed not only 
in man, but in all living things, vegetable as well as ani- 
mal. A seed is planted, exposed to moisture and heat 
that excite its latent life into activity, and soon a plant 
rises from the earth; for a certain length of time this 
will grow ; for another it will bloom, and for another it 
will yield fruit; then bear seed after its own kind, decay 
and perish. All the changes between birth and death 
occur, in some plants, in a short season of three months. 
It is the same with some animalculae and worms. The 
silk worm, for instance, will, in the short space of six 
weeks start from its condition of egg-existence and go 
through all the vicissitudes of life, propagation and 
death. In this short time it was brought forth, matured, 
spun a large quantity of silk, passed a season of torpi- 
tude in chrysalis, was metamorphosed into a moth, entered 
into its connubial state, reproduced thousands after its 



7 2 MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 

own kind, and died. But amidst this ephemeral life, we 
find the oak of the forest, the pine of the mountains, 
and the cedar, undergoing all these changes (except 
those of birth and death), and being renewed annually 
in vigor, during a long life of centuries. 

The changes that occur, classifiable into periods, are 
not all alike in manner, or in length of time, either in 
the animal or vegetable kingdoms. In man they are less 
sudden or salient than in plants, or other animals; 
neither is there a broken link in the progression to sug- 
gest the moment for mark. At times, however, the 
mind is arrested by an expression, or by a word, signifi- 
cant and startling, that leads one to realize the fact that 
under his very eye a creature has passed from one state 
to another, or has freed itself from the thraldom of 
childhood and advanced to a higher degree of dignity. 
If through stupidity you fail to recognize this fact, you 
are quickly made aware of it from the demeanor of the 
person concerned. Although your dullness may not 
provoke resentment in the young person so carelessly 
unobserved, it may, nevertheless, incite an expression of 
self-appreciation, which you cannot fail to notice and 
respect. Henceforward you accept the fact that a 
change has occurred, and that you are addressing a 
person who has entered into a higher state of mental 
and physical development. 

We have mentioned four periods of life, which, on 
reflection, bear resemblance to the four seasons of the 
year. Philosophically, as well as poetically, it would not 
be inappropriate to call Infancy, spring ; Adolescence, 
summer ; Virility, autumn ; Dementia, winter. 

From our work on Maternity Ave will transfer to these 



PUBERTY. 73 

pages a brief and concise delineation of these seasons 
of human life. 

"Infancy, or childhood, is a period almost totally veg- 
etative ; it is a period of growth of the organs before 
the mind is sufficiently developed to influence and con- 
trol them, ere they are ready for action. This period 
will embrace twelve or fourteen years of our life. 

"Adolesence is the progression of the former period. 
The term comes from the Latin adolescere (to grow, to 
become strong). It denotes that period of human life 
between the first signs of puberty and the time when the 
body ceases to grow, and has acquired all its physical 
perfection. This period commences at eleven or twelve 
years of age with women, and at fourteen and fifteen 
with men ; ending with the former at twenty-one, with 
the latter at twenty-five years of age, or thereabout. 

"The changes that the organism undergoes at this 
epoch of life are very remarkable in both sexes. . . . 

" In the woman, those physical and moral changes are 
not less remarkable [than in man]. The organ of her 
especial function, the womb, which so far has given no 
sign of existence, comes out of its state of inertia; the 
menses appear, to return periodically every month ; the 
breasts, whose functional existence is so intimately con- 
nected with the womb, commence to develop ; every 
organ perfects itself, in preparation for the process of 
reproduction. The body of the woman, however, re- 
tains some of that infantile delicacy of texture, of that 
suppleness, of that grace of mpvement, which constitute 
the great contrast with the striking vigor, the activity, 
the impetuosity that distinguishes the same stage in man. 

u Virility, i manhood,' is the period that follows ado- 



74 MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 

lescence, and ends with old age. In the age of manhood, 
the body has acquired all its proportions. The life 
becomes more even and uniform ; the ideas, which have 
followed in the ratio of physical development, now be- 
come more profound and fixed, and the movements of 
the body consonant with the dignity of the mind. The 
time of brilliant illusions has passed ; imagination gives 
place to judgment, frivolity to circumspection, heat of 
passion to reason, vivacity to reflection, impulsive gene- 
rosity to prudence and calculation, and aimless reck- 
lessness to sagacity and ambition. 

"Dementia is the period when the body and the mind 
decay. It is less distinct, as it varies in different people 
according to the preservation of their health ; and 
oftentimes we see an active mind in a decayed body. 
Yet it is a period that must come sooner or later to both 
mind and body.' , 

Of all these periods we have to treat only of that 
which relates to Adolescence in Woman; for it is with 
the intention of guarding and preserving her during this 
important part of her life that this work has been 
undertaken, because then it is that her moral habits are 
forming, and her organs are shaping themselves to a 
fashion, in which they must remain ever after. It is dur- 
ing this time, also, that the mind, heretofore passive and 
almost totally imitative, springs as from itself into an 
existence of self-dependence, self-regulation, and gives 
evidence of originality of thought and conception. All 
the senses become more active ; and one can notice the 
human being gradually breaking away from the anchor 
of parental control, and drifting towards the current of 
life, where it will thenceforth steer its own course. 



PUBERTY. ?s 

It is also in the time of adolescence that latent dis- 
eases often develop themselves; and the offspring of 
parents who have died of tuberculous consumption 
need now the greatest attention, for in this condition of 
susceptibility, the slightest indiscretion is often the 
spark that kindles a fatal fire. 

It is now, also, the time when one of the most impor- 
tant functions of woman's life becomes established; and 
it is imperative that its beginning, as well as its contin- 
uance, be in accord with the laws of her nature. 

MENSTRUATION. 

The function which characterizes the development of 
puberty in woman, is "Menstruation." Knowing, as we 
do 5 the multitude of ills, the discomforts, the weakness, 
the disability that may follow an imperfection of this 
process, we can but feel irresistibly impelled to warn the 
mothers, as well as the daughters, that a study of its 
normal type and the causes of its abnormalities, are 
things which should come within their perfect knowl- 
edge. 

In former chapters, and in the paragraph on adoles- 
cence, we have already mentioned the moral and the ex- 
ternal physical development of puberty. It now remains, 
to explain the physiological process of menstruation, to 
which all other functions seem subordinate, and which 
will occur periodically every month, from the age of 
about fourteen to forty-five. We may be allowed to 
repeat, that this phenomenon is the real sign of puberty 
in woman, as well as a normal indication of her devel- 
• opment; without it her beauty would perish, and her 
future be involved in suffering. A regular occurrence 



7 6 MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 

of this function is probably the most reliable symptom 
of health in woman. At the age above mentioned, if 
nature is not obstructed in the accomplishment of its 
laws by any extraordinary obstacle, woman will not fail 
to become subject to this menstrual revolution. 

Warning symptoms. The menstrual eruption may be 
anticipated by a sense of weight below the small of the 
back, extending away down into the pelvic basin ; by an 
unusual sensation of heat in the genitals ; by fugitive 
pains; by general lassitude; by an excitability of the 
nervous system depriving the individual even of sleep ; 
by heat ; by slight pains and heavy feelings in the head ; 
by oppressed respiration, and highly colored urine. 

The breasts increase in volume and sensibility, be- 
coming even painful to the touch. The pulse quickens, 
and the circulation becomes so active as to give a new 
expression to the face, and brilliancy to the eyes. The 
digestive functions often become deranged, and the 
appetite depraved or made unnatural. 

It is not uncommon, while these functions are pre- 
paring in the young girl, to find that she is tormented by 
strange tastes, such as a desire to eat clay, slate-pencils, 
charcoal, salt, pickles, etc. She may soon be affected 
by incontinence of urine; diarrhoea or constipation; 
sweats, often offensive ; feverishness ; spasmodic and 
nervous affections such as neuralgia ; quivering or con- 
tractions of muscles, etc. 

A girl of nervous-sanguine temperament, of an imag- 
inative turn of mind, may be disturbed in her sleep by 
frightful dreams that awaken her suddenly. Even her 
moral disposition seems quickly to change, being now 
easily affected by impressions, irritated by the slightest 



PUBERTY. 77 

opposition to her wishes — or she may be overwhelmed 
by sadness, breaking out in tears and sobs, followed by 
hysterical laughs, and even convulsions. She seems not 
able to control her passions of love or anger; she 
changes from one state of mind to another, with quick- 
ness and without cause, and actually becomes an object 
of anxiety to her parents and her friends. This unnat- 
ural state may occur, from time to time, for a month or 
two, or sometimes longer, before the first appearance of 
the menstrual flow ; and it is observed that as soon as 
the flow commences, and in proportion to its continu- 
ance, these symptoms of vital irritation diminish, and 
finally cease with the flow at the end of the third or 
fourth day. 

There are instances, however, where the premonitory 
symptoms are still more severe. The process in these 
severe cases is often preceded by a serous or watery 
discharge from the womb ; by spasmodic cough ; by 
cutaneous eruptions, such as those red, tingling and 
itching spots, commonly called hives ; by violent colics, 
by great nervous depression, and by a greenish (chlor- 
otic) hue in the complexion. 

The presence of these symptoms would naturally lead 
one to suppose that a serious malady exists, requiring 
the interference of the medical man ; and we would not 
say that his assistance may not often be necessary to 
calm the apprehensions of the patient, and the attend- 
ants, and to suggest some mild means to give relief from 
actual suffering; but we nevertheless desire to make 
clear the fact that patience, quietude, and the free flow 
of menstrual fluid, will dissipate all the previous irrita- 
tions, and bring the patient back to her normal state. 



7 8 MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 

The establishment of this function oftentimes pro- 
duces a most salutary effect on girls that have heretofore 
suffered with chronic affections, relieving them, as if by 
magic, of troubles which had been believed to be per- 
manent. 

These morbid conditions are not necessary concomi- 
tants of the preparatory stage in the evolution of this 
function ; for it does happen that girls are overtaken by 
the coming of menstruation, without being conscious of 
having undergone any of the above described morbid 
states ; although flashes of heat, flushes in the face, 
heaviness of the head, and slight nervous excitability, 
may have occurred without creating any marked impres- 
sion. 

The first appearance of the menses generally occurs 
as follows : On the first day there will be a flow of a 
fluid, something like blood and water mixed, which will 
occur at intervals. On the second day, the fluid is less 
watery, and the flow more continuous. On the third 
day it will be almost pure blood, that will flow without 
interruption. On the fourth day the flow diminishes 
quite perceptibly, and is interrupted at times. On the 
fifth day it again assumes quite a watery appearance, 
coming at intervals, greatly diminished in quantity; 
until it entirely ceases. Now all the previous symptoms 
disappear, and the girl, well and buoyant, may be satis- 
fied that she has actually entered the most interesting 
period of her life. 



CHAPTER XL 

MENSTRUATION ; 
ITS PHILOSOPHY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 

ON superficial inquiry one might suppose menstru- 
ation to be nothing more than a troublesome and 
unnecessary process. But, scientifically speaking, it 
would be a heresy to declare this, or any other process 
of nature, 'unnecessary; for scientists have long since 
learned that all the requirements of nature are abso- 
lutely unavoidable for the accomplishment of the intent 
of the Creator. This truth should rather be a cause of 
pleasure to man, who would then know that his own 
organization, as well as ail surrounding him, is not the 
result of accident or of fortuitous circumstances, but a 
part of a grand whole in the creation. 

Nothing is left to chance in nature ; and this trouble- 
some function in the life of woman is not unnecessary 
but a useful and important law of her being. Our duty 
is to study and understand the import of that law, that 
she may be able to abide by its restrictions, and become 
an active agent in its preservation. 

What, then, is Menstruation? To explain it, philoso- 
phers and scientists have invaded the innermost sources 
of its origin, and through observation, experiment, com- 
parison, have arrived at logical inferences that are 
accepted to-day as a satisfactory explanation of its ex- 
istence. 



go MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 

Its periodicity first attracted their attention, and then 
they found that other animals and living things were 
subject to similar periodicity for purposes of repro- 
duction. Reproduction, then, became foremost in their 
inquiries; and the more they studied and reflected upon 
the subject the more they became convinced that the 
process of menstruation had relation to it. Then came 
various theories, more or less plausible, in proportion to 
to the advancement in the science of anatomy and phys- 
iology. 

It is not many years since science was in great obscur- 
ity; indeed, it is only within this last century that great 
strides have been made in the knowledge of functional 
and anatomical organization. It is not, therefore, sur- 
prising, that great ignorance still exists in this regard, 
and that obsolete theories yet continue to prevail in the 
minds of the uneducated and the vulgar. 

We will pass over the period when the products of the 
menstrual flux were believed to be a curse that would 
wither and blemish everything they touched. The ad- 
vancement of science, literature and art of centuries has, 
from constant research into causes and effects, emanci- 
pated the human mind from many a superstition, among 
which this was one of the most flagrant. 

Physiologists tell us now that menstruation is a part 
of the process for the propagation of our own species. 
It might properly be called ovulation, or the develop- 
ment and discharge of the egg, or germ of human life. 
It is found that when the ovaries are absent, through 
accident or congenital malformation, menstruation does 
not occur. It has also been found in cases of the death 
of a nubile woman, and of other animals, while men- 



MENS TR UA TION. 8 L 

struation is in progress, that the ovaries were in process 
of giving birth to an ovum (an egg). 

Before proceeding further in the perusal of this chap- 
ter, the reader should become acquainted with the arti- 
cles on the womb and ovaries already given; for 
without knowledge of the construction and relation of 
those organs, their functions may not be easily under- 
stood. 

Sentimental people affect to believe themselves spirit- 
ual beings, and seem to be overcome by a sense of deg- 
radation whenever reminded that they are associated 
with an animal nature. These specimens of human 
vanity feel lowered at the very thought of the affiliation 
of their moral nature with the crude, ponderous, and 
brute matter of the purely animal. But unfortunately 
for those who are thus afflicted, these romantic concep- 
tions are not in accordance with the laws that govern 
them. Their nature is a mixed one — the animal and the 
spiritual so intimately connected, that one exists by rea- 
son of the' other. 

Separate the spirit from the body, the union of both 
constituting one being, and quickly the latter resolves 
itself into elementary gases, through the physical laws 
that regulate all matter. 

In the exposition of our subject, and particularly in 
the one that immediately follows, we are to treat of 
functions that are common to all animals, however infer- 
ior, viewed in the light of our elevated notion of 
humanity. This should not deter even the sentimental- 
ist from giving them her closest attention. 

Ovulation is not a process peculiar to the human 
female. It is rather an universal system of propagation 



S 2 MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 

in all animals. A germ is a necessity to a new being in 
the animal, as well as in the vegetable kingdom. In the 
vegetable, it is enclosed in the seed ; in the animal, in 
the egg. There exists the closest analogy between these 
two systems of propagation. These facts having been 
established, the modes as to time and manner have been 
inquired into, and the result of the investigations has 
been to demonstrate that in the vegetable kingdom the 
fructified seed leaves its maternal plant, to fall to the 
earth, where at the proper season, and under favorable 
conditions, such as moisture and heat, it germinates, 
buds, spreads its roots, and follows in the ways of its 
progenitors. In the animal kingdom, some of its spe- 
cies deposit their eggs in places safe and favorable to 
their hatching. The parents of some of these sit on 
them, to infuse warmth into them during the time 
required for sufficient development to enable tliem to 
force themselves out of their shells. Others retain the 
egg, to hatch within an apparatus (the womb) peculiar 
to their kind, and thus nourish the new being within 
their own body, until it is so far formed and developed 
as to be born without danger to its life. 

Plants have seeding seasons of longer or shorter dura- 
tion ; some having more than one season a year, others 
only one in a hundred years; some propagating mill- 
ions after their own kind in one season, others but one. 
Some give maturity to their seed in one day, others in 
months. So with the animal kingdom. Animals have 
seasons of ovulation of longer or shorter duration, some 
bearing every day, like the hen ; some once in three 
years, like the elephant. Some bear millions at a time, 
like the herring; others five or six at one brood. Some 



MENS TR UA TION. g$ 

invariably two, like the pigeon ; others only one, like the 
horse. All developing after their own kind, some are 
born in a few days ; others in as many weeks ; others 
in months; others in years — the new-born following 
always the physical laws that govern the parent in its 
lineage. 

Hence the naturalist has divided these kingdoms into 
classes, classes into species, etc., for it was found that 
nature was intent on their continuation by constant and 
uniform reproduction. 

Mankind is not an exception to this system ; and, like 
other races, forms a single species, subordinate to its 
own laws. 

At the age of puberty — namely, when the human 
being has acquired sufficient strength and development 
for procreation — the human female is subject to an^ evo- 
lution of eggs. The ovaries are the organs provided 
for the formation of these eggs. They mature monthly, 
one at a time, at which period the egg leaves its place 
of birth for its first journey on the road to life; bursts 
its shell (called the graafian vesicle), and is free. Help- 
less, however, it lies till the fringed end of the fallopian 
tubes goes to its assistance, grasps it in its protective 
cavity, and by its peculiar motion pushes the egg for- 
ward into the womb, its first station, where it is to 
remain for the period of nine months to acquire growth, 
shape, strength, after its own kind. 

After the period of nine months' sojourn in this hos- 
pitable home, it is so far grown that from the size of a 
minute and formless seed it now weighs ten pounds, 
with all the beauty of human organization. 

It is not, however, the fate of all human eggs to 



84 MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 

develop into human beings, else in the pilgrimage of 
maternity every woman would probably produce thirty 
children. The egg of the mother alone is not sufficient 
for the reproduction of a human being, any more than 
the seed of a plant will develop into a new plant without 
having been made fruitful by the fertilizing pollen from 
the anthers. The egg is her share of the contribution 
towards this mysterious law of nature; man, her chosen 
companion, has also to pay his tribute to the new 
creation ; and then, like the vegetable germ, the fructified 
seed is ready to develop. 

[This particular subject, however, has been treated by 
the author in his work on Maternity, and he does not 
think its elaboration appropriate or necessary in this 
volume. Maternity, although published first, is properly 
a continuation of this book.] 

This monthly evolution of an ovum is what is called 
by physiologists ovulation. 

New formation in animals requires blood, just as 
much as new formation in plants requires sap. At cer- 
tain seasons, therefore, once a month, a determination of 
blood to the ovaries occurs, to supply the needed ele- 
ments for the formation of an egg. This flow of blood 
is directed not only to" the ovaries, but to the womb as 
well, to prepare that organ for the reception of the new 
guest that may or may not develop into a new being. 
Should that egg, however, be unfructified, its residence 
in the womb will be but transient, and it will pass off 
unconsciously to its parent. 

In this case the provision of blood, accumulated for 
the emergency, is of no further use, and is allowed to 
exude through the walls of the womb and pass away. 



MENS TR UA TION. 85 

This flow of blood is called menstruation. Now, then, 
it may be understood why menstruation and ovulation 
are held as synonyms. That one process is consequent 
upon the other is so far true that where ovulation is 
impossible, as in the case of absence of the ovaries, 
menstruation never occurs. 

Any extraordinary determination of blood to any part 
of the body causes a congestion, which if not relieved 
may go on to inflammation, with all its relative pains 
and dangers. The monthly congestion of the ovaries 
and womb is relieved by menstruation. Hence it is not 
surprising that the physician at that period insists upon 
such conduct on the part of the woman as will not inter- 
fere with or check this necessary exudation. Suppressed 
menstruation is always a cause of disease and danger. 
Indeed, any anomaly in this function never fails to 
reflect upon the system and induce great suffering. The 
causes that derange it are many, and often not within 
the young woman's knowledge ; but it does also happen, 
to her shame and discredit, that with perfect knowledge 
of these causes, she, for the vain gratification of an hour, 
will imperil her whole life. 

MENSTRUAL CRISIS. 

Epoch of its Commencement and Mode of its Course. 

As we have said, the first appearance of the menses is 
the signal of the epoch called puberty in woman. It is 
the occurrence that defines her sex by its peculiar 
function. 

The age at which this phenomenon occurs for the first 
time varies according to individual temperament, cli- 
mate, and mode of living. Like the germination of 



S6 MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 

plants, it occurs sooner in warm than in cold regions. 
Heat hastens life in the animal as well as the vegetable 
kingdom ; thus children of southern latitudes are com- 
paratively more precocious than those of northern ones. 
To compensate for this disparity, however, nature, always 
intent, upon maintaining an even balance, requires him 
who starts first to reach the end of his course soonest. 
Quicker to grow, quicker to die, seems an irresistible 
law. The precocity of the southerner, therefore, in the 
chances of life is no advantage over the northerner. 
Longevity should be reckoned in man, not so much 
by the length of his purely physical existence, as the 
continuance of the moral in harmony with the physical 
elements of his being. 

In southern countries girls ordinarily reach the age of 
puberty from the tenth to the twelfth year ; while those 
inhabiting temperate regions will not attain the same 
epoch until the twelfth or fourteenth year; and those of 
northern latitudes not until the. fourteenth or sixteenth 
year, and even later. This average, however, is not 
absolute; for the human economy is "also impressed by 
the circumstances that immediately surround it. 

Thus the young lass of agricultural districts and of 
the mountains, living retired from the excitements of city 
life, on a simple and non-stimulating diet ; mentally and 
physically occupied in out-door labor; her imagination 
unexposed to the stimulus of all kinds of literature, or 
of the spectacular dramas of city life, or the alluring 
scenes of the drawing-room and the dance, remains 
longer in that state of self-unconsciousness so lovely 
and so healthful during the stage of childhood. Her 
body grows in conformity with the laws of nature; 



MENS TR UA TION. g 7 

acquiring volume and strength, untrammeled by that 
forcing process of strong impressions upon the nervous 
system which hasten life to premature exhaustion. The 
occurrence of the menstrual crisis finds her, therefore, 
better prepared to perform all the requirements of her 
sex. Her intellectual faculties have the opportunity to 
thus develop in a strong and healthy body, enabling the 
woman to retain physical freshness and youthfulness of 
heart for a much longer period than her wearied and 
withering sister of the city. The modes of life of the 
country and the city girl are like the coach-road of 
olden times and the railroad of the modern : the motive 
of the one being safety, of the other speed. 

The city girl, over-fed with meats, with highly sea- 
soned viands, stimulated by coffee, tea, wines, and even 
sometimes liquor, is forced into an unnatural nervous 
activity. Exposed to early infatuations, to luxury, to 
indolence and confinement, to the vanity of fashion, to 
the admiration of self, she is quickly brought to that 
threshold of sensualism where are awakened thoughts 
that reflect upon her generative organs, which promptly 
respond, inducing untimely development, even beyond 
her physical power. To the surprise of her mother she 
announces her change. The mother's surprise should 
be one of sorrow ; for this premature sensibility will 
weaken her constitution, even before she is prepared to 
assume that position in life which will constantly draw 
from the resources of her physical organization. 

Parents and teachers should never forget that all that 
heats the body and inflames the imagination unduly 
hastens puberty in both sexes. 

In this connection, education — alluding here particu- 



83 MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 

larly to the period of school-training— has a bearing 
that should not be overlooked. 

The brain is the central motive-power of physical as 
well as moral life. The moral and the physical are 
reciprocal. That balance should not be disturbed, lest 
one preponderate over the other, for the time will surely 
come when both will suffer, particularly if the disturb- 
ance is incurred during that period of sensitiveness, the 
age of growth. 

Besides, this functional period of girls is affected by 
their respective constitutions, their temperaments. These 
temperaments play a very important part not only in the 
conceptions, inspirations and actions of humanity, but 
also in the development of physical organizations. 
Where the nervous-sanguine temperament prevails, other 
things being equal, puberty will be manifested at the 
earliest epoch ; in the lymphatico-sanguine it would be 
manifested at a later; and in the purely lymphatic at the 
latest of all. 

Mothers should carefully reflect upon all these facts ; 
for in the guidance of their daughters they will be of the 
greatest importance. It is to be regretted that too often 
the wise counsel of reason is smothered by a foolish 
yielding to fashion, and the advice of medical men and 
philosophers too often set aside with disdain, for the 
more insinuating and enticing whisperings of vanity. 

The duration of the menstrual flux may extend from 
two to eight days; but the average, in the great majority 
of women, is only from four to five. It recurs every 
twenty-eight days, the days of sickness included ; conse- 
quently, a woman in good health should menstruate thir- 
teen times in one year, namely : once every four weeks. 



MENS TR UA TIO.V. 89 

If a woman, therefore, is taken flowing on the twenty- 
eighth day of one month her next menstruation should 
occur on the twenty-fifth of the following month, pro- 
vided the previous month had thirty-one days; and on 
the twenty-sixth if it had only thirty days. It is a com- 
mon mistake in women to think that the occurrence of 
the next menstruation will be due on the same day of 
the month as the last, while it cannot be so if its course 
is normal and regular. The monthly sickness occurs 
once every lunar month, not the month of the calendar. 
This is the general rule ; but it sometimes happens that 
women, although in good state of health, menstruate 
every three weeks, and even oftener. 

If menstruation has been suspended on account of 
sickness, or from natural causes, such as pregnancy and 
lactation, it will reappear at the time when it would have 
been due had the woman menstruated regularly without 
suspension. Thus, if a woman's menstruation, being 
due on the 30th of a certain month, had been sus- 
pended, and continued so four times after, in her calcu- 
lation she should account for the three days for the 
months having thirty-one days, and for the two days for 
the months having thirty days, which in this case would 
probably sum up as follows : for the two long months, 
six days; for the two short months, four days; making 
a total of ten days, to be subtracted from the date at 
which they were first suspended ; hence, in this case the 
next regular menstrual flux would be on the 20th of the 
month. This rule should be recollected, for in many 
instances it will serve conveniently in anticipating rightly 
the reappearance of the periods after months of suspen- 
sion ; and, perhaps importantly, as a guide w T here the 



9 o 



MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 



medical man requires precise dates for his informa- 
tion. 

This regular occurrence is, however, somewhat dis- 
turbed during the few first months of the beginning of 
puberty, when a girl is liable to an irregularity of 
months, until the natural function is established in all its 
normality. 

In many instances, this process engenders no consti- 
tutional disturbance whatever; while in others, it is 
attended with heaviness and pain in the back, extending 
down even to the thighs; with burning urinations and 
heat around the genital parts. The usual expression of 
the face may change ; the eyes be surrounded by a dark 
ring, and the eye-lids often puffed ; the breath may be 
offensive, the breathing oppressed, and a general tension 
and hardness be felt at the lower part of the abdomen; 
occasionally, heavy, or acute, colicky pains may super- 
vene; nervousness will predominate, manifested by im- 
patience, anger, weariness or sadness. Hysterical symp- 
toms may even be superinduced, which not very rarely 
assume a spasmodic form. Should the above symptoms 
occur, particularly in a violent form, at every menstrual 
period, it would indicate a state of irritability, and even 
of inflammation, of the womb, requiring medical care. 

The quantity of blood lost at each menstruation has 
been estimated to be about six ounces ; but the flux 
depends so much upon individual temperament, age, 
regimen, moral and physical condition, upon climate and 
even season, that rarely two persons are found whose 
amount of loss is the same. 

It is found to be greater in northern than in southern 
latitudes; less in women advanced in life, or those who 



MENSTR UA TION. 9 1 

have had many children, or whose abdomen is dispro- 
portionately large ; less in women who lead a very active 
life, in those who are nourished by gross food, and in 
those of an impressionable imagination. It is therefore 
greater in women residing in cities than in those of the 
country. The brunette of a sanguine temperament will 
have a flow abundant in quantity, rich in color, and con- 
taining so much fibrine as to easily coagulate into clots. 
This free discharge of the sanguine temperament is 
often a relief to the person thus constituted. The loss 
will be less among those of lymphatic temperament, 
inclined to corpulence, to languor, and general inertia. 
It is particularly among those of nervous temperament 
that the flux is attended with pain and general discom- 
fort ; while the quantity varies, being at times copious, 
at others scanty, and more or less deficient in red 
globules. 

This flux has its rise, its height, and its fall ; appear- 
ing on the first day as a lightly colored discharge, 
increasing in red globules on the second, and reaching 
its height of quantity and intensity of color on the 
third, decreasing on the fourth, and generally disappear- 
ing on the fifth. 

The periods are sometimes anticipated by a whitish 
mucous discharge often mistaken for leucorrhcea. They 
are naturally suspended during pregnancy, and for eight 
or nine months during lactation, or nursing. This rule 
is subject to but few exceptions. 

During menstruation woman is very susceptible to 
moral impressions. All her senses are more acute, caus- 
ing her to become irritable and even impetuous ; unim- 
portant occurrences, such as the unexpected and sudden 



9 2 MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 

appearance of a person, a message of joy or sorrow, 
may throw her into an uncontrollable fit of hysteria. 
With some girls melancholy prevails; profound sadness 
seems to control their usually bright and hopeful nature, 
and despondency, alarm, suspicion, jealousy, and even 
despair supplant genial and loving dispositions. As 
soon as the term is passed, however, the dark cloud melts 
away, the moral deflection disappears, and happy smiles 
again illuminate their faces. 

Such is the history of menstruation in its normal 
course ; the abnormal instances occurring from accidental 
or constitutional causes, or from disease, will be treated 
hereafter. 



PART II. 



HYGIENE FOR WOMEN. 

Having in the former Part demonstrated the neces- 
sity for woman to be acquainted with the organization 
peculiar to her sex, and given an outline of the anatomy 
and physiology of the female organs, we shall devote 
this Part to the study of the fundamental principles of 
hygiene to be observed in the effort to preserve the nor- 
mal condition of her functions. For convenience, it 
will be divided as follows : 

I. Hygienic generalities. 

II. Society, in its relation to the health of girls. 
III. Exercise, and its relation to bodily functions. 
IV. Food, its digestion, assimilation and absorption. 

V. Air, or the atmospherical conditions having rela- 
tion to human health. 
VI. Clothing. 



CHAPTER I. 

HYGIENIC GENERALITIES. 

THE delicate texture of woman's skin renders her 
more susceptible than man to the various changes 
of temperature, as well as of quality of atmosphere. 

Extremes are always dangerous to her. Heat and 
cold, dryness or dampness, density or rarity, in excessive 
degree, are conditions of atmosphere to which she is 
extremely sensitive, particularly when the changes are 
sudden, as on our Atlantic coast. For the same reason, 
she is more susceptible to atmospheres containing dele- 
terious substances, and those of a contagious and infec- 
tious character. Light, as well as pure and temperate 
air, is conducive to her health. Deprive her of sunlight, 
and she will blanch like a plant grown in the shade. 
Her very delicacy requires the influence of these ele- 
ments, even more than stalwart man. Men will stand 
days in the furnace room of a steamship, naked to the 
waist, feeding the fiery furnace with coal, or will work 
their life long in the tunnels of the mines. Not so 
woman. Light and air are essential to her preservation. 
. Compare the city with the country woman ; or with 
the one that breathes the purer and more rarified air of 
the mountains. Of course, every woman cannot be 
transferred to the mountains, but it is therefore even 
more the duty of man to see that she does not perish in 
the confinement of heated and ill-ventilated rooms. 



9 6 MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 

The temperature of dwellings, modified, of course, 
according to climate and seasons, should never be ele- 
vated beyond sixty degrees Fahrenheit. 

In North America, where wealth prevails, the com- 
modities of life are generously supplied, and none more 
so than that of combustibles for heating. This indul- 
gence is a great source of bad health to those compelled 
to the seclusion of home. The Southerner finds the 
atmosphere of a Northern dwelling well-nigh intolera- 
ble. The moderate temperature of his climate enables 
him to live longer in the open air, and consequently he 
suffers in the hot and close atmosphere of a Northern 
dwelling, even when the air without is below zero. 

Heat, long continued, while exciting at first, must 
enervate at last, rendering vitality low, and the body 
susceptible to the variations of temperature felt from 
passing in and out of doors. 

It is a mistaken notion that external heat is to supply 
the exhausted heat of the body, for were it so what 
would the Laplanders and Esquimaux do in the snow- 
houses of Iceland ? Nature has provided that the oxy- 
gen of the air, in oxidizing the carbonaceous particles 
of the blood, shall induce heat; and that exercise, in 
quickening the circulation, will more rapidly send the 
blood to the lungs for the purpose of quickly subjecting 
it to that beautiful process of calorification. Hence, 
food, pure air, light and exercise, constitute the cardi- 
nal elements which give the necessary strength and heat 
to the body. In the application of these elements, 
reasonable moderation should always be adopted, and 
each element used only as a proportionate equivalent 
to the loss; for life has a proper standard which 



HYGIENIC ^GENERALITIES, gy 

should not be encroached upon, either by excess or by 
stint. 

The extraction of heat from the body in colder lati- 
tudes would very soon cause death, if carbonaceous 
substances, such as oils, fats, meats, etc., were not taken 
into the system as fuel, and converted into heat by the 
oxygen breathed from the air. It is the experience of 
all travelers in the icy regions that the diet above men- 
tioned will preserve life when clothing or fire, the latter 
particularly, would fail. It is an historical fact, that the 
French, returning from Moscow, fared better when they 
kept aloof from the fire and forced themselves into 
motion than when they bivouacked around the camp- 
fires, resting from their fatigue. The laws of nature can 
hardly ever be replaced by artificial custom. The per- 
son who lazily spends the entire day in an atmosphere 
of seventy, on a diet containing but little carbon, freely 
using ices and ice water, can hardly expect to feel vig- 
orous and warm when he leaves his cosy corners for the 
open air of a cold winter's day. A diet of fat meats, 
sugar, molasses, buckwheat, with proportionate exercise, 
will enable a person to feel comfortably warm in a tem- 
perature of sixty degrees, thus greatly decreasing the 
difference between house and cut-door temperature. 
But little additional clothing, on leaving his abode, will 
insure his bearing the rigor of a severely wintry day 
without discomfort. When this system, so much in har- 
mony with the laws of nature, is pursued, colds, catarrh, 
rheumatism, neuralgia, bronchitis, pneumonia, and con- 
sumption, very seldom attack an individual. This being 
so with all, how much more so must it be with tender 
and sensitive girls from the ages of five to fifteen ! 



9 8 mothers and daughters, 

Girls who attend school, and remain motionless for 
several hours in over-heated rooms, are liable to con- 
stant derangements; and many of them perish before 
they are crowned with academical honors. Girls with a 
good circulation can sit as many hours in a temperature 
of sixty degrees without suffering ; and when they leave 
that prison for the air of heaven, their lungs and skin 
will not be so easily impressed by the change of temper- 
ature. A brisk walk will bring roses to their cheeks, 
their system will re-act, and they will return home ready 
for a hearty repast. 

Air, food, light, and exercise constitute the principal 
means by which the health of all human beings is main- 
tained. Would that girls were allowed a sufficiency! 
Boys will get it anyhow, and it were well-nigh impos- 
sible to prevent them. But girls, subdued by training, 
and tied to the mother's apron-string, need the assist- 
ance and the authority of the physiologist in their cry 
for help. Oh, let the mother forget to lock the door, 
that her daughter may follow her natural instincts, and 
run for health in the air and sunlight of day, in the 
games and pleasures suitable to her age ! The seraph of 
the household may become of a ruder complexion; her 
spirit, more buoyant, may encroach upon the stateliness 
of refinement ; but what matter ? Her mind, under this 
healthy laisser-aller, will grow strong in harmony with 
her body. Her stomach will digest; her heart throb 
with power; her sleep be undisturbed; her excretions 
normal ; indeed, every organ will respond to the healthy 
regimen. Thus she will grow into womanhood prepared 
to fulfill her mission as nature intended. 

On the other hand, imagine the fragile, narrow- 



HYGIENIC GENERALITIES. 99 

chested, susceptible, delicate girl of the over-heated 
house, or of the narrow, badly ventilated apartment. A 
breath of cold air strikes to her very heart ! Quiet, 
subdued, because deprived of vigor ; susceptible to cold, 
because condemned to poor circulation of blood ; slug- 
gish in her functions, because of her general languor; 
having no appetite, because of want of wear and tear 
of her muscular system ; nervous as a quivering leaf 
from want of tone ; sleepless because unfatigued. This 
condition, so much in discord with the requirements of 
nature, can only bring forth the woman of tears — tears 
that will bathe every step of her course through life. 

Were it not that our duty is imperative, we would 
have avoided the painting of this last picture ; but, how- 
ever painful to contemplate, it is presented in the ear- 
nest hope that the evils it delineates may be shunned. 



CHAPTER II. 

SOCIETY, 
IN ITS RELATION TO THE HEALTH OF GIRLS. 

A NUMBER of people living together in certain 
bonds of union, whether in tribes, in hamlets, 
towns or cities, constitute a community or a society. 
The very word community conveys the idea that the 
people composing it have objects in view that are com- 
mon to all. 

This is the crude principle that induces men to live in 
groups, forced into that position probably by the simple 
necessity of self-preservation. 

Society may be denned as an improved condition of 
these groups, guided by the indefinite and unexpressed 
law of common consent. 

One might live in a community unmolested and un- 
disturbed, perhaps, simply by obeying the written com- 
mon law, or abiding by the cardinal principle "do unto 
others as you would have others do unto you. ,, Society, 
however, exacts more ; it modifies or enlarges the scope 
of the law, without actually forcing any one into obedi- 
ence, or administering physical punishment for non- 
acquiescence; still, these mandates, although not served 
with the official seal of the magistrate, are nevertheless 
compulsory, as another form of punishment — social ostra- 
cism — is sure to follow infractions. Moreover, compli- 



SOCIETY. IO i 

ance being optional in society, like a debt of honor, it is 
sooner observed than when forced by process of law. 

All laws, to be suitable to a community, must be 
general, and cover the interests of many people, often 
spread over large space, as in states, nations or empires. 
They cannot, therefore, be so restricted as to meet the 
wants of closely united, although numerous, populations, 
which, in their turn, are sub-divided by occupations, 
industries and preferred modes of living. The society 
of Paris, as an example, might prcsper under the general 
laws of France, but the variety of callings, professional 
and industrial, of its people require more ; namely : 
rules and regulations governing the intercourse among 
its immediate members, that would be unnecessary and 
unsuitable to the much smaller groups sparsely located 
in agricultural districts. In short, cities need municipal 
laws. 

The social system of law, unwritten and not subject to 
forcible compliance, is elastic, and therefore in the con- 
dition to be easily modified whenever circumstances or 
events require it, thus forming a complement to the writ- 
ten law of the land. 

It is an important complement too; for without it the 
amenities, the good manners, and the refinement of large 
aggregations of people, would be lost in the simple ob- 
servance of meum et tnum, the common law. Therefore, 
although much may be said against the unphilosophical 
and even unreasonable decrees that have gradually crept 
into the codes of social ethics, the necessity of some 
social code must be recognized. 

Social customs, so often beneficial to well organized 
communities, may as often prove dangerous if yielded 



102 MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 

to without discretion or discrimination. Mushrooms 
growing in the bark of a tree may appear to the careless 
observer as an integral part of the same ; but a little dis- 
cretion will show the error. The mushrooms that grow 
on the diseased spots of social constitutions may appear 
the same and be respected accordingly; but a little 
examination will show that they are only unhealthy out- 
growths, which should not be tolerated if the integrity 
of society is to be maintained. 

Spencer, the erudite and searching philosopher, has 
analyzed these social fungous growths, and it is well 
worth while to read his works on sociology, for nothing 
is more interesting than his examination of social struct- 
ures. But, here, we can notice only the errors which 
are honored more through custom or force of habit than 
for any good influence they bear on the health of the 
human economy. Fashion constitutes one of its de- 
partments, probably the most dictatorial, the most 
potent and irrepressible; its exactions, like all imperi- 
ousness, being as much for evil as for good. 

In the varied departments of social government, fash- 
ion is probably the one that plays the most active part 
in the physical welfare of the people, and consequently 
it is a subject that cannot be overlooked in a guide to 
health. 

Napoleon III., as a financial statesman, might at first 
sight have been deemed right in encouraging extravagance 
in his Court. The magnificent and varied costumes of 
Eugenie created a furore in the female community of 
the wealthy class for certain fabrics, certain colors and 
shapes of courtly robes. The silk manufactories of 
Lyons vied with one another in quickly supplying the 



SOCIETY. I03 

market with the extraordinary requisitions; thousands 
of mechanics and laborers were kept at the loom and 
the spinning-wheel, and thus thousands were employed 
who otherwise would have been idle, troublesome, grum- 
bling people. But, on the other hand, the extravagance 
of that court, becoming contagious, spread beyond the 
limits of the classes able to bear the enormous tax. The 
desire to be in the fashion contaminated all ranks, and 
extended beyond the boundaries of the nation for which 
it was intended. That extravagance filled many a coffer 
with gold; and for a while even the national exchequer 
was buoyant. But, like all unhealthy things, the disease 
unnoticed corroded the very foundations of society, and 
threatened it with general destruction. The panacea 
invented by the Emperor was one sure to fail. The sad 
episode of that country's trial in its war with Prussia, 
proved that the potion was only an alluring one; for 
weakness instead of strength had grown under its ad- 
ministration and in the passage-at-arms to which France 
was forced she was overwhelmed and conquered. 

Eugenie, the Empress, plump and warm, might order 
transparent materials that her exquisite throat and well 
moulded arms be not entirely hidden; or some other 
Eugenie, lean and anaemic, but wealthy, might properly 
order heavy silk to cover her ropy throat and sinewy 
limbs. Eugenie in the Tuilleries, in gilded coaches and 
on velvet carpets, may adorn herself as is fitted to her 
position, and to her condition in life; but Eugenie, the 
wife of a humble citizen in moderate circumstances, 
with household duties to perform, may perish in the 
attempt to follow the Empress. 

Eugenie of the Court of France may have a corset 



io4 MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 

artistically applied to her form, but Eugenie the wife of 
a city attorney may not have the famous artist at hand, 
and the corset bought at the store, although called " the 
empress," prove to be of inelastic material and totally 
unsuited to the form of the attorney's wife. Again, 
should Eugenie lose her natural hair, the imperial crown 
may not sit well on her stately head, and a competent 
artist may be called upon to supply the deficiency — but 
is that a reason why all women should adopt the fashion 
of wearing false hair? Yet this is done to-day, even by 
the kitchen maid ; and where human hair is unattainable 
on account of costliness or otherwise, horse-hair and 
wool and all sorts of abominable imitations, in the shape 
of "rats" and "mice," are employed. 

With the Empress dethroned, however, fashion's reign 
does not cease, for the manufacturers are still engaged in 
enticing its devotees. Trade is their profession, consump- 
tion the corner-stone of their palatial structures ; but, as 
consumption perse would not be sufficient to enable them 
to gild the seat of their easy-chairs, variety and change 
must be continual, that gold may come by scattering 
abroad the flimsy products of their brain. These manu- 
facturers employ no physiologist or moralist, but only 
the skillful artificer, who is expected to overshadow his 
old devices by improvising novel ones, thus making the 
blind followers of fashion the dupes and victims of the 
inventions of these gold mongers. 

Reason, whenever at variance with fashion, is aban- 
doned. Witness the ridiculous costumes, the induced 
deformities, the unnatural gaits, the transparent preten- 
sions of respectable women who daily defy good sense 
in our public thoroughfares. 



SOCIETY. 10 5 

But fashion is found not only in dress. Let a foolish 
spendthrift of high rank invent a beverage or a flavored 
dish, and his boon companions will leave his halls im- 
pressed with the necessity for adopting it. Thus coffee 
and tea were imported from their indigenous regions, 
and, however unreasonably, have become articles of diet 
common to every culinary establishment. Unphilo- 
sophical minds argue that such articles could not be 
favorably received and generally adopted unless they 
were pleasing to the senses and innocuous to life. They 
little know how this pet theory of theirs would fail upon 
examination! Tea and coffee have done more injury to 
nations and to people to whom they are not suited, by 
reason of climate or temperament, than all the bat- 
tles of the twenty years' wars of the great Napoleon. 
Physicians every day meet the victims of these drugs 
who have not even the Hotel des Invalides to repair to. 
They are not armless, neither do they walk upon stumps, 
but they are crippled in their whole nervous organiza- 
tion. Neuralgia, that most painful of all diseases, is so 
common to-day that a shrug of the shoulders is given 
at any one complaining of that infirmity. Coffee is the 
generative parent of that disease. Palpitations and 
functional diseases of the heart are common, too, to- 
day ; tea should properly legitimate this offspring. That 
undefined affection misnamed " nervousness " should be 
more properly baptized under the name of " coffee-ism " 
or " tea-ism," and just as deservedly as the unbridled pas- 
sion that. engenders murder or the ill-treatment of a wife 
or the overthrow of the intellect is called " alcoholism." 

Fashion becomes custom, custom becomes habit, and 
under their dominion man is but an abject slave. 



io 6 MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 

Coffee, tea, or alcohol should not be denounced any 
more than the gunpowder that forces projectiles into 
millions of hearts. Their agency is well known and 
established; and if education would teach that powder 
is not to be used except for blasting rocks, alcohol for 
chemical and manufacturing purposes, and tea and coffee 
as medicines for those who need such drugs, their disas- 
trous effects would cease and they be written among the 
list of blessings. 

Educate the young not to follow baneful fashion, that 
injurious habits may not be acquired, and, above all, 
spare your children the effort of not imitating you, if 
devoted to it, and the coming generation will abound in 
health and beauty. 

Exaggerations and misapplications of fashion are 
oftentimes not only dangerous, but absurd. A hat is 
an article of dress intended to protect the head, but 
ornamentation has often got the better of its usefulness. 
Woman's hat has been subjected to strange metamor- 
phoses. As a bonnet it has been seen to look like an 
exaggerated coal-scuttle, hiding not only the hair, but a 
great part of the face. It was an ugly contrivance, but 
had some claim to usefulness, as it gave protection from 
the rain or the sun. As a hat, we have seen it no larger 
than a full-blown rose, hanging as a mere ornament from 
the hair. We may see it adorning such pretty faces that 
we are glad it is small ; for a delicate, oval face, with 
bright eyes, a classical little nose, and pretty lips, sjd 
pronounced by the tiny hat coquettishly placed on the 
head, is surely attractive. But again, let us see the 
same tiny hat, with bright ribbons and gay flowers, on 
the head of a woman whose age it would be uncharita- 



SOCIETY. IQ 7 

ble to mention, whose face had attained the fullness of 
the moon, and a nose that gives unmistakeable evidence 
of having seen better days. The same little hat is there, 
but the face, though similarly prominent, is not the same 
in effect, and the coquettish little trifle becomes a mon- 
strosity. So, fashion may prove a failure in ornamenta- 
tion as well as in usefulness and healthiness. 

If the inventors of fashions were people who studied 
the laws of health as diligently as they do those that 
govern Beauty, Art, and Money, humanity would suffer 
less, and even this book need not have been written. 
The long skirt, trailed through dust and mud, may be a 
source of revenue to the manufacturer, but is one of loss 
of health to the consumer. The hoop that spread the 
skirts in a wide circle around the woman may have 
opened a new industry, but it has favored the introduc- 
tion of cold air upon the person that has chilled the 
limbs of many. The change that afterwards brought 
the skirt to fit tightly around the person may have 
secured another class of industry — bustle-making — but 
it has thrown an impediment in the way of locomotion 
that badly affects the wearer's comfort, and sometimes 
by badly adjusted pressure at the back induces great 
pain and positive injury. The elegant garter that the 
Countess of Salisbury dropped, and which gave rise to 
the bon mot of " Honi. soit qui mal y pense" may have 
been honored by that royal salutation of King Edward 
and made immortal, but the pressure of like articles has 
caused the withering of limbs that otherwise would have 
had development and grace. 

Much has been written of the pernicious influence of 
fashion, yet the most judicious advice in this regard has 



I0 8 MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 

failed to elicit much attention from those who, desiring 
to please, would adopt anything by it suggested, how- 
ever inconsistent with the laws of health. It is to be 
regretted that the desire to please is inculcated in the 
young sooner than the observance of natural laws and 
the refining influence of good taste. 

Into what terrible errors has fashionable dress led 
woman, requiring her to be sometimes dressed, some- 
times semi-nude ! How catarrh, rheumatism, pleurisy, 
neuralgia, and consumption have reveled among the 
devotees of these conventionalities ! 

There was a time when woman dressed according to 
seasons, and the change was made in strict accordance 
with the almanac, for it was considered not com?ne-i!-faut 
to do otherwise; and if the heavens respected the alma- 
nac less, it was the fault of the heavens and not of 
fashion, even if woman had to pay with her life for 
her conscientious observance. It should be said, how- 
ever, to the credit of the women of the present day, that 
the continued remonstrances of hygienists have not been 
entirely unheeded, and that they exhibit in some things 
more practical sense than their grandmothers. Placing 
the skirts on the hips is certainly a salutary improvement 
upon the habit of fastening them above the abdomen 
and under the armpits ; and in like manner the women 
of our day are more likely to look at the sky than at the 
almanac before dressing. 

In olden times it was not uncommon, also, for women 
to lace tightly during the night that the bosom be kept 
high and shapely. It is to be hoped that this pernicious 
habit has disappeared. 

The high heels of the last century, remarkable only 



SOCIETY. I09 

for inconvenience, threw the body forward, thus cheating 
nature of the provision that the body should rest upon 
the heel rather than upon the toes. That heel caused 
many a curvature of the spine and other deformities 
dangerous to child-bearing, and its brief re-introduction 
a year or so since was marked in its evil influence on 
such troubles. 

Again, society in its complex demands has changed the 
order of nature. Night is for rest ; for the Shadow is 
the inviting host that all animals obey. But society has 
decreed differently ; light for work, shadow for pleasure. 
And it is therefore that the youth who has worked all 
day is met in the small hours of night, over-fatigued and 
oppressed, wending his way to the couch that has waited 
long to give him rest and refreshment. The girl, too, 
who has begun to- relish the dangerous enticements of 
gay life — witness the abandon with which she will pass 
through the varied charms of an evening devoted to mad 
pursuit of " pleasure," and then go out into the inclem- 
ency of a winter night in a dress of " airy nothingness " 
to return to her home. The inspiriting scenes of the 
ball-room having passed away, she helplessly sinks into 
a chair, to be relieved by her maid of the vestments that 
only force can remove. The removal of her shoes ex- 
torts an expression of pain; and when her corset, wet 
and chilled, is taken off, her body is variegated with the 
creases from its pressure. She now draws a breath such 
as she has not drawn for hours, and her lungs, heart, and 
liver are glad to be again set free. The imagery of the 
evening's excitement floating in her brain forbids sleep. 
If she arises next morning it is a wonder ; if she has no 



II0 MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 

headache it is a miracle ! Haggard and pale she pre- 
sents a very picture of debility. 

Rest has hardly brought back the flush to her cheeks 
before a perfumed note is placed in her hand requesting 
the pleasure of her company to a similar entretien du 
beau monde. And so, night after night, until body and 
brain wilt in the dry heat of passion. This is homage 
to fashion ; this is effort to please ! 

The exaggerations of fashion, injurious as they are to 
people of all ages, are particularly so to girls during the 
period of development. In some countries girls are kept 
in close confinement until they arrive at the nubile age; 
but while their minds may thus remain free from the taint 
of sensualism, impressed by too early contact with the 
world, their bodies must languish under restrictions that 
deprive them of physical exercise. The body and the 
mind should be allowed to grow apace, untrammeled by 
unnecessary restrictions or unseasonable stimulation. 
The education of the Convent may enhance the purity 
of the soul and refine the brain with intellectual power, 
but its efforts will be futile if the body, through which 
only that power can be exhibited, is undeveloped or 
diseased. This country, a very cradle of liberty and 
intelligence, errs in a contrary manner. Here, girls, who 
should only breathe the purer atmosphere of home, are 
allowed to frequent theatres, balls, dress like women of 
consequence, and share in all the allurements of society. 
Like premature flowers, they are forced into this un- 
natural life, exhausting their vitality long before they 
have secured the physical strength adequate to bear so 
much drain upon their nervous organization ; hence the 
severe but just criticism, that " the beautiful women of 



SOCIETY. m 

America do not last." Physically they are tired, morally 
they are wearied, until often at the age of thirty they are 
old in their faces and satiated in their senses. Having 
exhausted all in the nature of pleasure or fashion, in their 
ennui they might join in the lament of the renowned 
Georges Sand, who says : " In the course of my life, un- 
restrained either by rule or by rein, I have done as 
others. I have appeased hunger by savory and exciting 
nutriment. I have cheated sleep by a reveille without 
purpose or by unprofitable work. Sometimes by the 
light of my candle I have sought in books the key to 
the great enigma of human life ; sometimes, borne by 
the whirlwind of the times, I have stood among the 
multitude with a sad heart and looked with somber gaze 
upon all the elements of satiety. In vain I have sought 
to seize in the perfumed air of nocturnal feasts, a sound, 
a breath, that would cause me an emotion. 

" High life, enervating to the organs and exciting to the 
mind, has closed the light of day from the palace of the 
rich, it has lit the torches to give light to wakefulness, 
and imposed the work of life upon the hours nature has 
marked for rest. 

" How resist this feverish race ! How run in this 
breathless course without exhausting one's self before 
reaching one-half of the distance marked by the stake ! 

" So here I am, as old as though I were a thousand 
years. My beauty, so much praised, is but a deceiving 
mask, under which is written exhaustion of the body and 
agony of the heart. In the age when feeling should be 
keenest, I have no feeling, not even a desire, unless it 
were to end this life of fatigue and disenchantment for 
the repose of the grave!" 



H2 MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 

Thus speaks this woman, who has drained the" cup of 
pleasure and excitement, ere she has run one-half of the 
cycle allotted to her life. In the whirlpool of gratifica- 
tion she has drowned even ambition, and she is ready 
to die. 

To preserve the life of woman, to render her strong 
and capable of fulfilling her destiny, should be the pur- 
pose of the physician and of every man privileged to call 
her mother or wife. These two words, that fall from the 
lips of every being, from the cradle to the couch of 
death, may appear trivial on account of their constant 
use, but a complete order of creation is contained there- 
in. If a mother were a mother but an hour, if a wife 
were a wife but a day, what comfort, what happiness 
would humanity enjoy ? All that contributes to man's 
happiness is directly or indirectly from her, in her rela- 
tive positions of wife and mother. What are children 
without a mother, what is home without the wife ? Her 
sickness paralyzes the household; her death leaves a 
vacancy that cannot be filled. Wealth would be but a 
meaningless word were she not there to share it ; ambi- 
tion but a thorn were she not there to soothe and 
encourage; disappointment, or affliction, but fatal stabs, 
were she not there to apply the balm of hope and forti- 
tude. The gray bearded man returns to drop tears of 
sorrow on the lap of his octogenarian mother. The 
trembling hand that smooths his rugged brow removes 
the sting of worldly injustice, and releases the victim 
from the clutch of passion. 

Woman's part and lot in life is a grand one; no loud 
and discordant clatter of dispute about her "sphere" 
can ever give her higher, broader, or nobler duties and 



SOCIETY. I!3 

privileges than she has, as mother and educator of her 
race. Her position may be improved, legally, indus- 
trially, socially, by more enlightened enactments ; and 
God speed that day ! But meantime, and always, she 
will have in her own hand the key to greater power, and 
without it all reforms will be nugatory. She must seek, 
find, and keep her bodily health. Let the mother guard 
her daughter's footsteps, then, when she begins to enter 
on the perilous approaches to the realm and reign of 
Fashion. Society is full of pitfalls for the unwary, and 
its requirements often induce habits and practices which 
are found to be dangerous only by their evil effects. 
Then it is too late ! 



CHAPTER III. 

EXERCISE, 
IN ITS RELATION TO BODILY FUNCTIONS. 

PHYSICAL exercise, systematically and judiciously 
taken, is the greatest harmonizer of the bodily func- 
tions. Muscular action induces destruction of tissue ; 
should it go on without intermission of rest, and resupply 
of nutrient material to make good the loss, exhaustion 
would be the consequence. The loss of tissue creates a 
demand for nutrient elements, which is made known by 
the sensation called "appetite.'' Under this action and 
reaction, loss and supply, the integrity of the muscular 
and nervous tissue is maintained. The bones, too, 
brought into action by the muscles, receiving their quota 
of stimulation during exercise, grow, and develop into 
proper proportions. When exercise is partial, or local, 
the parts thus brought into activity grow out of propor- 
tion to the surrounding parts; thus the blacksmith ex- 
hibits a powerful and sinewy arm; the dancer a powerful 
and well developed leg. Exercise, therefore, when gen- 
eral, serves to develop in adequate proportions the va- 
rious parts of the body, and, when partial, to strengthen 
those requiring better development. 

Exercise quickens the circulation of the blood ; the 
lungs, responding to the rapid flow, require a greater 
quantity of air for oxygenation ; hence respiration is 
quickened to obtain the supply. The blood thus be- 



EXERCISE XI j 

comes purified in the lungs, and returns more rapidly to 
the tissues with new material for nutrition. The car- 
bonic acid is thus quickly exchanged for the vitalizing 
principle, oxygen, that stimulates and gives vigor to the 
body. The pulse responds to this general tone, and 
consequently beats firmer and with a more even rhythm. 

The union of oxygen with the carbon of the blood 
evolves heat. When the circulation is rapid, the carbon- 
ized blood reaches the lungs quicker, requiring a greater 
amount of air for oxidation; hence respiration is in- 
creased, and a greater evolution of heat is the result. 
Exercise, then, performs the triple function of assisting 
in the elimination of effete matter, of conveying more 
nourishment to the exhausted tissues, and of generating 
heat. 

Long-continued exercise, uninterrupted by periodical 
and adequate rest, would cause exhaustion, as is evinced 
by the sensation of fatigue. This sensation is the warn- 
ing that the time has come when a supply of nutritive 
materials should go to replace the waste of tissue already 
incurred. To secure a perfect distribution of the nutri- 
ent elements, rest is necessary; consequently exercise 
immediately after taking food is hurtful, as activity des- 
troys so much of the nervous force needed for a proper 
performance of digestion. 

Those who do not conform to these demands become 
dyspeptics, from non-assimilation of food 

Excessive fatigue indicates a great loss of tissue, and 
is dangerous, because the system, under its general pros- 
tration, would not manifest its wants ; and, while it may 
require food, it may not induce the sensation of hunger 
suggestive of such necessity, and therefore go unsupplied 



n6 MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS, 

at a critical moment. And, again, if much food is taken 
when the stomach is weak from continued fatigue and 
want of nourishment, it may remain unacted on, and 
unassimiiated, and become a source of irritation instead 
of force. 

Persons leading a sedentary life, or a life of little 
activity, as shop-keepers, who would eat out of propor- 
tion to the wear and tear of their bodies, accumulate fat, 
become obese and lethargic. Hard-working men, on 
the other hand (and particularly students, who use up 
an immense quantity of nervous matter), unless properly 
and adequately supplied by rest and nourishment, would 
become very lean, and be the victims of neuralgic and 
pulmonary complaints. 

Exercise, to be beneficial, should be proportionate to 
the strength, and have relation to the habits and occupa- 
tion of the individual. Purely physical labor induces 
stupidity, and lethargy of the intellectual faculties. 
Purely mental labor reduces the volume of the body, 
and causes a debility that renders one prone to receive 
impressions from the slightest irritating casualty. 

Society, intent upon refining girls by close application 
to study, neglects that fundamental principle of health 
consisting of the proper equilibrium between mind and 
body. 

What is proper exercise for girls? Such a question, 
on a subject apparently so simple, need occasion no 
surprise; because custom, habit and fashion have so 
misdirected young women in this regard that they 
scarcely would understand now what healthy exercise 
means. In society, as constituted, girls have but limited 
opportunities for it. 



EXERCISE. 



MODES of exercise: walking. 



117 



A daily walk should be enjoined upon all girls, from 
infancy upwards, without paying too much regard to 
slight inclemency of weather. If civilization has done 
anything, it has certainly invented appliances for the 
protection from cold, from rain, from wind, and from the 
sun. The walk should be a pleasurable one if possible, 
and of sufficient length to induce moderate fatigue. 

Walking is the first and most natural mode of exercise. 
The act of walking brings into play all the muscles of 
the body, and even the internal viscera partake of the 
general movement from the shock incurred every time 
that the foot touches the ground. The circulation and 
the respiration are accelerated in proportion to the 
exertion undergone. The senses are not passive, for 
every object attracts the eye and causes a thought. The 
changes of situation — as the being in the shade, under 
the sun, facing the breeze, quickening the step in the 
cold, slackening it in the heat, exchanging salutations 
with friends, or analyzing objects of curiosity — give an 
exercise of the organs of intellect as well as of the body 
which secures moral and physical equilibrium. It is 
therefore good for the sound in health, for the convales- 
cent, and for the valetudinarian. 

It is said that a systematic walker never dies of con- 
sumption. However true this may be, certain it is that 
those who form and carry out the resolution to take a 
daily walk generally enjoy good health. 

RIDING. 

Riding is one of the most enjoyable and salutary 
exercises known. This mode of motion is peculiar and 



n 8 MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 

ever-changing, and not dependent on the will. To 
maintain equilibrium, the rider must conform to the gait 
and the motion of the horse, which depend on the con- 
dition of the ground and on its own speed. Under this 
exercise the circulation and respiration are greatly- 
increased and digestion assisted ; the mind is pleasantly 
engaged, emotions excited, and emulation inspired. 
Young people like to ride well — some desire to exhibit 
prowess and skill. In many diseases riding is found to 
be more efficacious than the most renowned therapeutic 
agents. 

Riding, in increasing the tone of the muscular fibers, 
in promoting digestion and assimilation, corrects morbid 
sensibilities, and is therefore of great benefit in hysteria, 
hypochondria, chronic neuralgia, palpitation from dys- 
pepsia, etc. 

DANCING. 

Dancing is probably the most welcome, and certainly 
a most useful exercise for girls, though the difficulty is 
in getting it under proper conditions. It is a system of 
motions, composed, as an author has said, of running, 
walking, and jumping. It has been practiced from 
ancient times, although of late it has undergone serious 
modification. The dance of the ancients was an inspi- 
ration, that had but little form or rhythm. Civilization, 
more exacting in propriety, as society understands it, 
has checked the impulsive and ingenuous motions of the 
" inspired " dancer, to reduce it to an even, regular 
motion, that is fatiguing and tedious from its continued 
sameness. Waltzing has been introduced, which, in its 
rhythmical turnings can only weary the limbs, send 



EXERCISE. II9 

blood to the head, cause dizziness and sickness of the 
stomach ; it deprives the lungs of air, causing oppres- 
sion from want of breath. Quadrilles, now almost 
entirely proscribed from the salon of fashion, are really a 
most excellent practice of gymnastics, particularly for 
girls of lymphatic temperament. 

Dancing requires plenty of fresh and pure air to sat- 
isfy the greater circulation of blood in the lungs. The 
inspiring of a great quantity of air, surcharged with car- 
bonic acid emitted from either burning gas or candles, 
and from the lungs of a multitude of persons present in 
a close room, is exceedingly dangerous. The motions 
occasioned by the various dances require that the mus- 
cles, and particularly those of the thorax, be free from 
the stricture of tight dressing. 

Dancing contributes to physical education and devel- 
opment. It is a corrective of that sedentary life which 
keeps the lower extremities inactive; it is a pleasurable- 
exercise, favoring sociability, and stimulating the desire 
for suppleness and grace; but care should be taken that 
the enjoyment of this mode of exercise be had only 
where the air is pure, and not over-heated; when the 
dancers may be properly dressed, without compression, 
or exposure to sudden changes of temperature; and in 
company and at hours which are wholesome both to the 
morale and the physique. 

On this score, Michel Levi says: "The moral and 
physical influence of dancing is a therapeutical resource 
that promotes menstruation when late, or corrects many 
of its irregularities. On the other hand, when too often 
repeated, or carried to excess, it may excite the organs 
of circulation, so susceptible in a young girl, and cause 



I2 o MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 

reactions which are distinguished by debility, pallor, and 
languor." 

ROWING. 

This mode of exercise, for a specific purpose, namely, 
the development of a narrow chest, is one that cannot 
be surpassed. Under the alternate and continued 
extension and contraction of the muscles of the arms 
and of the chest, the ribs are kept in active motion, 
favoring, through this elasticity, expansion of the lungs. 
The circulation and respiration are greatly accelerated, 
thus adding to the exercise of those organs. The pleas- 
urable excitement is conducive to a happy state of the 
mind. The air on the surface of the water is pure and 
invigorating. The motion of the body is graceful, and 
under these vitalizing agencies, girls of delicate respira- 
tory or digestive organs will improve in health and 
strength, and acquire forms that are attractive in 
woman. 

GAMES. 

Billiards, so little practiced by woman, is one that 
stands pre-eminent among all games for healthful exer- 
cise. The constant change of attitude, the moderate 
force required, and the pleasure it inspires, fit it as the 
woman's game/^r excellence. Croquet, tossing ball, bat- 
tledore, are games, which, being played in the open air, 
and moderate in their requirement of force, are also 
conducive to the health of girls. 

PASSIVE EXERCISE. 

Driving is a passive exercise which is healthful on 
account of the change of air experienced in the distance 
passed over. Driving to the country is far preferable to 



EXERCISE. I2I 

driving in the confined air of a city. The motion of the 
carriage communicates some motion to the body, which, 
although limited, exercises the muscles and the articular 
surfaces. 

It is a pleasurable mode of exercise, and a great relief 
from continued and confining occupation. 

Sea going. The sea air, the novelty of the situation, 
and, often, sea-sickness, prove salutary. Many invalids 
have found health at sea. The air is invigorating; it 
contains ozone, and the emanations of sea-salts. Sea- 
sickness deters persons from going to sea; but, really, it 
is seldom that it affects one in a distressing manner. 
The great majority of sea-going people feel the incon- 
venience for two or three days ; after this they begin to 
feel better, and finally become perfectly well, enjoying 
an excellent appetite. The rest of the journey is passed 
without illness, and the general health is greatly im- 
proved. When nausea is present, the smells of the ship, 
which come from the stagnant water in the bilge, or 
from the oil used on the machinery, greatly aggravate 
the case and add to the discomfort. It is therefore 
well that persons apprehensive of sea-sickness should 
engage berths well-ventilated and distant from the 
engines. 

Many are the hygienic expedients recommended to 
avert sea-sickness ; but their comparative failure is only 
further proof of the general fact that things beneficial or 
curative to one are not so to another. 

Some adopt the system of lying down as soon as they 
go on board, and remain quietly in their berths for seve- 
ral days, until they feel no longer that terrible malaise. 
Others will remain constantly on deck in the open air. 



I2 2 MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 

Both these methods are good, but the choice must be 
made from the experience of every individual ; for that 
which will suit one may not suit another. 

Passengers should go on board in good condition, at 
least so far as the biliary organs are concerned. The 
intestines should have been previously unloaded, even 
by a discreet purging. On board, for the three or four 
first days, food should be taken often, but in small quan- 
tities. Champagne, brandy, lemon juice, or pounded ice 
often relieves inclination to nausea, and even an intense 
attack of it. 

Persons easily affected by the ship's motion should 
secure a position as near the centre of it as possible, as 
there motion is least. Keeping the perpendicular by 
swinging the body in the opposite direction to the motion 
of the boat lessens its bad effect. 

Sea traveling often cures chronic diarrhoea of long 
standing, invigorates the biliary apparatus, and relieves 
biliousness. Hepatic, renal colics, and dysentery are 
also often cured. It is said that choleraic patients do 
well at sea, 

SINGING. 

This is also a mode of exercise about which little has 
been said regarding its effect upon the health of girls. 
A great hygienist, however, speaks as follows : " At the 
age when the system has not attained sufficient develop- 
ment, the exercise of singing is not without accident. 
In the natural state, respiration is divided in two equal 
actions, viz. : that of inspiration and that of expiration. 
In singing, the alternation is not regular or uniform; the 
inspiration by which the voice is sustained is held for a 



EXERCISE, 



123 



long time; the blood, unable to enter the contracted 
lungs, dilates the cavities of the heart, the larger veins 
and the capillaries; it is then that the veins of the neck 
swell and the face becomes red. It is thought that this 
suspension of a regular breathing tends to induce dis- 
eases of the heart and of the lungs, at least in delicate 
girls. Many girls, who are preparing for professional 
singing, have to abandon it on account of pulmonary- 
hemorrhages. " 

It is therefore necessary to use proper judgment in 
this regard, and not force the practice of this art upon 
girls whose organization cannot bear the effort without 
suffering. Singing is an attractive accomplishment, but 
the health and life of a girl are of greater importance, 
and she should rfot be led into the practice unless her 
physical development warrants it. 

Girls whose efforts to reach a high note are such as to 
make the bystanders tremble for fear of accident, should 
not sing. " A beautiful voice adds new charms to 
beauty, but the study of an art of pleasure should not 
be one of pain and danger." 



It is principally for girls who attend school that exer- 
cise of divers kinds is imperative. Mental work and 
bodily inertia lead to nervous exhaustion and deformity. 
Gymnastics, adapted to their physical condition, should 
be practiced during the hours of rest. The importance 
of this fact is so generally known now, that all well con- 
ducted schools are supplied with proper gymnastic 
apparatus. 



I2 4 MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 

Exercise secures good digestion, maintains a good cir- 
culation, a proper temperature, and gives vigor to the 
body; it is therefore one of the greatest protectors a 
young woman can have. 



CHAPTER IV. 

FOOD, 
IN ITS RELATION TO THE PRESERVATION OF LIFE. 

THE selection of food should be based upon certain 
physiological and fundamental principles which 
ought to be understood by all and complied with as far 
as practicable. 

Food has two great offices to perform : to maintain the 
natural heat of the body and to repair the waste of the 
tissues. In the young it has to supply extra material for 
growth. Without the first, the temperature of the body 
would fall below the standard consistent with the pro- 
gression of life ; without the second, the body would be 
self-consumed. 

Speculative physiologists have calculated that one 
twenty-fourth part of the constituents of the body is 
changed in the course of twenty-four hours. This may 
seem very surprising; for the inference would be that a 
person weighing 150 pounds would daily require six 
pounds and four ounces of actual nutritive material; 
and, as it is further calculated that an adult excretes 
forty ounces of solids and fluids, it would seem as if 
nine pounds of food (solid and fluid) should be taken 
into the body within twenty-four hours to maintain its 
integrity. But all the nutrient materials are not taken 
in by the mouth ; the skin absorbs some from the vapors 
of the atmosphere : hence an exact calculation is impos- 



126 MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 

sible. The skin is a very active agent, not only in 
secreting fluid for its own elasticity and in maintaining 
an equilibrium of temperature, but in absorbing life- 
giving properties. It is related of a jockey, who had 
been starved in order to be reduced to the proper weight 
for riding, that, just before taking his ride, he com- 
plained of great weakness and thirst; a cup of tea was 
administered, and in an incredibly short time his weight 
had increased six pounds, and he was consequently dis- 
qualified for riding. The warm cup of tea stimulated 
the skin into action, and every pore was opened to 
absorb nourishment from the vapors of the atmosphere. 

This is another good argument in favor of keeping 
the skin free from impurities, else absorption would be 
prevented. It is impossible to give an exact estimate of 
the amount of nutritious material a person might usually 
take in twenty-four hours; as the amount required 
depends on the wear and tear of his system from labor, 
on atmospheric conditions, and on evaporation, etc. 
This uncertainty is, however, provided for by nature, in 
a proper system of balance. A slight excess would be 
relieved by excretions from the kidneys, by the sudorif- 
erous glands, and by the lungs; moreover, another part 
of the surplus would be stored away in deposits of fat, 
as is usually seen in persons who eat more nitrogenous 
and carbonaceous food than the waste from the actual 
exercise of the body would require. 

All food taken into the mouth is subjected first to a 
thorough mastication, and the action of the saliva; the 
saliva not only adding the water necessary to a thorough 
mixing of the substance under the triturating process of 
the teeth, but converting its starch into sugar. 



FOOD. 127 

In this operation the saliva secreted by a hearty and 
well-fed man has been estimated to be as high as three 
pounds a day, although Carpenter does not place his 
estimate higher than twenty ounces. Thus mixed and 
masticated, the food descends into the stomach, where 
the chemical action of the gastric juice and the mechan- 
ical action of the muscular fibres resolve it into an 
homogeneous semi-fluid mass, called chyme. The chyme 
passes onward through the lower orifice of the stomach 
(the pylorous) into the duodenum (the first portion of 
the small intestines, so-called from being of twelve 
fingers' breadth.) In the duodenum the chyme is mixed 
with the bile from the liver, and the pancreatic juice of 
the pancreas (the sweetbread, a gland of considerable 
size lying just below the stomach). These two last 
fluids chemically modify still further the new chyme, 
until it is reduced to a fit condition for absorption by 
the lacteal vessels, which, like a net-work, surround the 
whole intestinal canal. These vessels converge to, and 
end in, one common duct, called the Thoracic, which 
empties itself into the left jugular vein. 

In the duodenum the chyme undergoes an important 
alteration, both as to its sensible and its chemical prop- 
erties. The effect of the admixture of the bile and the 
pancreatic juice is to separate the chyme into three dis- 
tinct parts ; two parts may be said to contain the oily 
substance, the proteine compounds, the saccharine and 
saline matters in solution, constituting a compound 
emulsion called chyle, ready for absorption; and one, 
the residue, composed of insoluble materials and biliary 
matters, which, being unfit for nutriment, pass on into 
the intestines, and are finally evacuated as effete matter. 



I2 8 MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 

Careful observers have calculated the- amount of gas- 
tric, pancreatic juice, and bile secreted by each respec- 
tive organ in this work of digestion and assimilation; 
and it is given that a healthy man secretes in twenty-four 
hours thirty-seven pounds of gastric juice, ten pounds 
of pancreatic, and three or four pounds of bile. These 
quantities, as Hinton says, seem amazing, and if true 
they can only be explained by the supposition that they 
are quickly re-absorbed, and "that the total quantity 
may express the result of a rapid circulation, the amount 
present in the stomach at any one time not exceeding a 
few ounces." 

The process of digestion had been a mere speculation 
of physiologists until Dr. Beaumont, of the United States 
Army, had a remarkable opportunity for witnessing it 
within the human stomach. It was the wound of Alexis 
St. Martin, of Canada, which, having left a permanent 
fistulous aperture in his stomach, enabled that clever 
physician to make those important observations which, 
afterwards, were confirmed by Blondot and Bernard, by 
similar experiments on dogs. 

After many observations, Dr. Beaumont was enabled 
to determine the relative digestibility of the most. impor- 
tant articles of diet. This was a valuable research, 
worthy of great consideration ; for upon the digestibility 
of food greatly depends the well-being of all mankind, 
and particularly of persons afflicted with weak digestion, 
occasioned by constitutional debility. Almost any food 
might, in time, be digested by a healthy stomach ; but 
the length of time required to digest separate articles of 
diet varies in different individuals. The knowledge of 
the digestibility of each article is of great service, be- 



FOOD. I2 g 

cause the longer an article of food remains in the 
stomach, the greater the work imposed upon that organ, 
which would eventually become exhausted in the re- 
peated and continued attempts to reduce the indigestible 
materials. 

The normal functions of the stomach may be affected 
by the quantity eaten, the nature and amount of exercise 
taken before eating, the length of interval allowed be- 
tween meals, the general state of health, the condition 
of the mind, the seasons, the climate, &c. But a general 
knowledge of the digestibility of food, when the system 
is in good condition, may enable even the diseased to 
discriminate properly, and select the food that, on ac- 
count of easy digestibility, may prove beneficial. Dr. 
Beaumont found that indigestible substances, when pres- 
ent in the stomach, interfere with the process of assimi- 
lation of the whole, and prevent an early reduction of 
the various articles taken at one meal into that homoge- 
neous mass called chyme. According to his observa- 
tions beeil is more easily reduced than mutton, and 
mutton sooner than veal, or pork; fowls, when young, 
being less digestible than was supposed, and turkey 
more so than any meat except venison. He also ascer- 
tained that soup and fluid diet, so often resorted to by 
the sick, on the supposition of easy digestibility, are not 
so easily chymified as solid aliment ; and this latter fact 
is often experienced by dyspeptic persons. 

Dr. Beaumont's experiments confirm our notion re- 
garding the effect of temperature on digestion, i. e., that 
the free use of ice-water during meals, and ice-creams 
at dessert, is detrimental to the process of digestion. On 
one occasion, he observed that the injection of only a 



I3 o MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 

gill of water at 50° into the stomach sufficed to lower its 
temperature below 30°, and that its natural temperature 
was not restored for more than half an hour. The cool- 
ing of the stomach, at a time when it needs its greatest 
activity, must be injurious, and, in our opinion, is respon- 
sible for the majority of the cases of dyspepsia in this 
country, where cooling beverages are unsparingly used 
at repasts. It has already been stated that cold con- 
tracts the capillaries and drives the blood from them; 
deprive an organ of its circulation and you deprive it of 
its force ; how, then, can a stomach perform its functions 
under the treatment of ice ? 

The use of ice-water at the table is an acquired habit, 
not a necessity, for we find that in the warm climates of 
Italy and Spain, ice-water is scarcely ever used; and the 
laboring classes of those countries, exposed to the heat 
of the sun, and warmed by actual exertion, find ice a 
luxury that they cannot afford ; but they are the people 
who never suffer from dyspepsia. 

Sherbets and ice-creams are luxuries delightful in 
warm seasons ; but they should be taken after digestion 
is completed, when the stomach has no labor to perform. 

Liebig has divided food into two principal classes : 
one, that he calls " respiratory" supplying the principles 
that are burnt, as it were, by the oxygen of the inspired 
air, to heat the body; the other, "plastic" supplying the 
elements to form tissues. 

This division, although subject to criticism, may be 
accepted for its simplicity, the objections to it being 
only of such a nature as would confuse rather than aid 
the layman in comprehending the process of alimenta- 
tion. 



FOOD. I3I 

The food contributing fuel to the respiratory organs 
chemically contains large portions of carbon and hydro- 
gen; plastic food, much nitrogen, and traces of phos- 
phoric acid, lime, soda, potash, iron, magnesia, &c. 

The elements of respiratory food are carried by the 
blood to the lungs to be exposed to the atmospheric air, 
the oxygen of which combines with them to produce 
carbonic acid and water. The chemical combination of 
the carbon and hydrogen of the blood, with the oxygen 
of the atmosphere, evolve heat and vapor; the heat 
warms the blood, thus keeping it to its natural tempera- 
ture, and the water is exhaled by the lungs in a state of 
vapor. 

A proof of the latter may be had, on a cold day, 
by blowing on a piece of glass, when the vapor will be 
condensed by the colder external air and form drops of 
water on the surface of the glass. The cooler the air, 
the greater the loss of heat from the body; it is then, 
therefore, that oil, fat meat, and all articles containing 
much carbon, are needed. An example of this we have 
in the diet of the Esquimaux and Laplanders of the 
Arctic regions, which often consists of the blubber of 
the whale. 

Before experimental science had demonstrated that 
chemistry entered largely into the vital process of 
growth, separation of tissue, evolution of heat, &c, 
mankind followed in the track of all animals, and se- 
lected food by instinct; and it may be that instinct 
proved more salutary, for it was the voice of nature, 
and the food then selected was simple and unmixed. 
As the savages do now the whole human family did 



i 3 2 MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 

then, namely, gather food in its natural state wherever 
found. 

But, in the course of time, populations greatly in- 
creased in number, and commenced to collect in locali- 
ties, and formed aggregations of people for whom nature 
had not provided. It would be appalling to see three 
million Londoners start early in the morning for the 
fields and waters of England in quest of food! Culti- 
vation of food and the exchange of one article for 
another then became a necessity, else those who were 
stationed in arid lands would have starved. While this 
semi-civilized state progressed it was found that wheat 
might be raised in certain regions, while fruits would 
grow better in others ; that where land was too poor for 
cultivation water might yield its fish, animals be caught 
. in the wilds, birds brought down from the air. A fish 
or a bird might then be exchanged for a loaf of bread, 
and so ad infinitum, until all could partake of the 
bounties of the earth. This is barter, or commerce in 
its incipient and natural state. But these communities 
had other necessities. While people tilled the land they 
could not make bricks nor build dwellings ; they could 
not manufacture cloth, nor make clothing, &c, hence 
the exchange enlarged in scope, and gained in propor- 
tions, until the whole work of civilized humanity became 
divided in classes, each one contributing to the other. 

But in bartering a difficulty arose : a man could not 
give a cow for a pair of boots, for it cost more time and 
labor to raise the cow than to make the boots. An 
equivalent was necessary, a medium that could balance 
the difference on a fair principle of equity. From this 
necessity money was invented, which having received a 



FOOD. I;5 3 

value recognized by all, and divisible into the smallest 
possible amounts, could be used to supply the defic- 
iency, and thus enable persons to consummate an 
exchange between articles of different value. Thus 
multitudes became organized under the common law of 
equity. Society became a complex but perfect machin- 
ery, in the combination of which reciprocity was the 
motive power. 

In this great combination of labor, for it is nothing 
else, the need of food is the motive power that impels 
humanity. Let food be scarce or unattainable and the 
frame of the social fabric will fall as if struck by a 
thunderbolt. That cohesive force once removed society 
falls asunder; each man following the crude instinct of 
self-preservation. Murder and rapine would be the 
ruling passions, and the civilization of a thousand years 
would disappear, as if by magic, from the face of the 
earth. 

As these groups of population grew more numerous, 
and concentrated in fixed localities, such as towns, 
cities, &c, the demand for food increased in adequate 
proportions, and man sought it everywhere and in every- 
thing. Natural food becoming scarce, he was compelled 
to eat things he would never have eaten in his savage 
state; he studied combinations that should make things 
palatable that otherwise would be repulsive; he has 
added condiments and cooking, and finally made of the 
cuisine an art that is almost a science. But in all these 
praiseworthy endeavors the love of money has prevailed 
even over natural necessities ; and articles unfit for food 
have been invented, carefully prepared and introduced, 
until now it is very questionable whether the man who 



I3 4 MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 

partakes of the repast of the wealthy is not worse off 
than the poor laborer whose limited means compel him 
to still live on the simple productions of the earth, pre- 
pared in a primitive manner. It is questionable, too, 
whether the common law of equity, born of the above 
mentioned necessities, has been fairly carried out; for 
it is evident that in bartering some persons get the better 
of others, and are thus enabled to accumulate wealth; 
that is, the means to provide themselves with luxuries 
by shrewdness rather than by labor, while others have 
yet to work to earn every loaf of bread, — although we 
must acknowledge that brain-labor may be more than 
the equivalent of hand-labor, and skill in labor of any 
kind will always be worth more (that is, will produce 
more) than mere unintelligent force. It is questionable 
also, whether the accumulation of wealth has contrib- 
uted much to the well-being of the accumulator; for we 
generally find better health and more contentment 
among the working-classes than amongst the opulent. 
It is particularly of health that we speak, for we are 
conscious that the pleasures of the table have done more 
work of death among its devotees than all the battles of 
the savages in their struggle for existence. 

As civilization has advanced, however, men have 
devoted themselves not only to the production of food 
but to the study of its quality in relation to the health 
of the human economy. They became learned in the 
science of anatomy and physiology, and speculated on 
the natural functions that reduced all articles taken as 
food to a condition to be assimilated, and distributed to 
the system for its preservation. We shall not attempt to 
follow them in their exhaustive disquisitions, but hope 



FOOD. I35 

to be able to draw a sketch of this wonderful process of 
nature, that will awaken the interest of the reader, and 
induce further search in abler and more elaborate works. 
The circulation of the blood carries the nutrient ma- 
terials to the source df life. Life is constant until it 
ceases forever ; so the circulation of the blood must be 
constant. Hours of rest are not periods of intermission 
but only of less activity. At the very moment that the 
heart ceases to beat life is extinct. We would compare 
the circulation of the blood to water running a mill. By 
way of illustration, let us suppose a mill, run by water 
flowing through a canal of a circular form. It may be 
said that this is admitting an impossibility, for a circle 
cannot have a constant declivity, without which the 
water would find its level and come to rest. But let us 
suppose it, nevertheless, because the figure may be easily 
conceived by the mind. That water, kept in motion by 
force, would go round the canal circle and strike the 
paddles of the mill-wheel and make it turn. In doing 
this, however, the water would be constantly exposed to 
loss of quantity from evaporation and from absorption 
by the soil. It would then constantly decrease in quan- 
tity until, at a certain time, it would become so reduced 
as not to be sufficient to propel the paddles of the wheel, 
and the mill would come to a stop. What is the remedy? 
To keep the mill constantly to its work water must be 
supplied to the canal in proportion to the loss. So with 
the circulation of the blood. The blood is the fluid that 
carries supply and force ; lessen the supply (the nourish- 
ment) you lessen the force until the heart stops and 
death ensues. But in the human system the blood is 
more important than the water is to the mill, for the 



I3 6 MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 

blood not only conveys force, but the supply to replace 
the material used up in the work of the human machine, 
which is not the case with the. water ; and the mill, con- 
suming itself by its own work, will last only for a time 
proportionate to the consumption and the ravages of 
moisture and heat. The blood, on the other hand, car- 
ries the supplies for the maintenance and the integrity of 
the organization, supplies the oils for lubrication, the 
fuel for a normal temperature, absorbs the residues of 
used and useless matter, carries them to the filtering or- 
gans, and thus keeps itself pure and ready to absorb 
constantly the life-giving elements of food. 

If this were not true it would be a charming fiction ; 
but it is true, and is a wonderful evidence of the wisdom 
and design of the Creator. 

We must quarrel with the so-called " rationalists " or 
" naturalists " for their attempt to choke our admiration 
* with their dictum that all this is the work of Nature, 
that even a blade of grass is organized on the same 
principle. Allow it. What then ? They have only 
changed one word for another. They worship at the 
shrine of Nature ; we, at the shrine of God. They can 
not explain their Nature any better than we can explain 
our God. Both may be abstractions, but the conception 
of a God is the conception of a personal power, which, 
however infinite and omnipotent, is not an idea impos- 
sible to human understanding; while Nature is an ab- 
straction without a comprehensive unit, a mist on the 
imagination, an impenetrable cloud in the firmament of 
our intellect. 

Were nature merely a chemical combination, capable 
not only of analysis, but synthesis, it could be repro- 



FOOD. 



137 



duced by chemistry at the hand of man. But all the 
analysis that man has been able to make of nature has 
been only proximate, never intimate ; hence, although 
the chemist may ascertain by analysis the properties and 
proportions of the elements of certain substances, say, 
wood, for example, he can not take those elements and 
produce wood by any chemical process. Why ? There 
evidently is a something that his analysis has not dis- 
covered. What is it ? The vital force belonging to the 
organic kingdom. The body of man has been analyzed, 
nay, all the elements of his composition have been dis- 
covered and carefully weighed ; yet the chemical phil- 
osopher cannot make a hair, much less a human body. 
Even as regards food, he knows all the elements compos- 
ing it, yet pure chemical elements could not maintain 
the life of the body. Oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, car- 
bon, and even the salts, are trophies of chemical art and 
science, but avail nothing to the body in their chemical 
purity ; they must be in an organized state to be useful 
to it. There is something, then, in that organization 
which the scientist cannot reach, else we could receive 
our food from the chemist instead of from the butcher 
and the grocer. All that enters the body, ere it becomes 
a part of it, must acquire the properties of life and be 
modified by the vital force of the body, not by chemical 
principles ; it must conform to the rules of organized life. 
It must not be supposed that inorganic matter acts 
within the body as it does in the retort of the chemist ; 
the elements must obey another law than the chemical, 
— the law of vital force. All the glands and cells of the 
various organs have their duty to perform, — to reduce all 
the elements, simple or compound, absorbed or taken in* 



I3 8 MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 

to peculiar conditions acceptable to the primitive or- 
ganization. This duty cannot be performed by art or 
science. 

The transformation of the articles of food within the 
body is remarkable. Solids become fluids and fluids 
become solids. They must become fluid to pass through 
the thin membranes of the vessels and pass out of the 
same ; they become solids in. the bones, the muscles, the 
nerves, the hair, the nails, &c. ; again they become fluid 
to be filtered by the kidneys, and even gases to be 
exhaled by the lungs. Does chemistry do this? No; 
vital force does it. What is vital force, then? Here 
we ponder ; philosophers give no answer. 

But vital force is exercised in the body at the expense 
of the tissues, just as much as the work of a pulley is at 
the expense of the rope. This consummation would be 
a disintegration of the tissues, unless vitalized food went 
to replace the loss. Particles devitalized by use are of 
no avail, and are therefore cast off by the same vital 
power, through the kidneys, the skin, the lungs, the 
intestines, &c. All materials of the body that have be- 
come useless to the organized structure are expelled, and 
from that moment cease to be a part of vital organi- 
zation and are turned over to their original master, 
chemistry. 

It is thus that all excretions soon give signs of decom- 
position ; for, deprived of the maintenance of vital force, 
the elements separate in obedience to chemical laws, and 
in the process gases are evolved that are offensive to the 
sense of smell. 

The circle of life is as follows : the heart (the left 
chamber) propels pure blood through the arteries into 



FOOD. I39 

all parts of the body ; the tissues take from it the new 
material and give up to it the worn and useless ; as the 
blood takes up the waste it becomes impure and returns 
through the veins to the opposite chamber of the heart 
(the right) ; in its course thither it takes up the new 
elements of food that have been prepared in the stom- 
ach and are poured in through the left jugular vein by 
the thoracic duct, as above explained. The venous 
blood, charged with impurities and the elements of new 
food, is now propelled by the right chamber of the heart 
over the surface of every air-cell in the lungs ; the oxy- 
gen of the atmosphere passes through the air-cells and 
oxydizes or burns out* the carbon, the most noxious 
element of the impure blood. The union of the oxygen 
with the carbon creates carbonic acid gas, which is 
exhaled from the lungs at every expiration. The 
chemical union of those elements evolves heat, which 
maintains the proper temperature of the sanguinous 
fluid. Some of the hydrogen of the blood unites also 
with some of the oxygen of the inspired air, producing 
water, which also is exhaled from the lungs in the form 
of vapor. The blood, thus purified, returns to the left 
chamber of the heart to be propelled again to the tissues 
of the body. Thus the circle is complete and the flow 
of its vital fluid constant. 

The work of purification is not all done by the lungs, 
however, for the venous blood on its route to the heart 
passes through various stations for purification ; the kid- 
neys take from it the urea and the salts of ammonia, the 
liver its bile, the skin other noxious fluids. 

This work, although so briefly stated, is very complex 
and easily deranged by the quality of food. It is known 



140 MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS, 

how quickly a poison can disturb and even destroy it ; 
it may then be easily comprehended how even slight but 
continued errors in diet may so derange it as to induce 
evil consequences. 

A bad digestion is the source of countless evils. Not 
only the physical but the moral life is greatly affected by 
it. Passion, anger, irritability, hypochondria — all these 
malarial vapors arise from the black fountain of indiges- 
tion, and cast a wide shadow of sorrow and suffering 
which all who are unfortunate enough to come within its 
limits must share. The dyspeptic himself is the central 
figure of this unhappiness that radiates bitterness and 
pain towards all who approach it, not excepting even those 
who would assuage with love and tenderness. Physic- 
ally he is a martyr condemned to administer to himself 
his own poison. Food he must have, though every 
mouthful becomes a flame of fire ; for hours after he has 
taken it he is on the racking wheel, and relief comes to 
him only when the food has passed away. 

Let young people ponder all this ; let them commence 
early to shun indulgence in eating and drinking ; let 
them understand the part that digestion plays in human 
life; for if they practice prudence they will preserve 
stores of happiness that will help them in every struggle; 
make them youthful in old age, though their limbs are 
withered and decrepitude steals over their bodies. 
Youth is the father of old age ; the seeds that are sown 
when young will bear fruit when old. 



Three things must be understood in the selection of 
food : materials for producing heat, materials for replac- 
ing waste, and materials to supply growth. 



FOOD. I4I 

"The want of materia! to keep the muscles, organs 
and tissues from wasting will cause the sensation of 
hunger ; 

"The want of material to supply loss of brain or ner- 
vous tissue — mental sluggishness and nervous debility ; 

" The want of material to supply the lungs with fuel, 
sensation of cold ; 

" The want of fluid to supply the loss of water in the 
body, sensation of thirst. j 

u The blacksmith who hammers his iron, the carpenter 
who planes his board, use muscle almost exclusively. 
Some of the muscle is constantly consumed and elimin- 
ated by perspiration and urination. Should they con- 
tinue their muscular labor without tarrying to repair the 
loss by a hearty meal of muscle-making material, they 
would soon fall exhausted to the earth. 

" The student in his cell, consuming brain-element in 
the solution of mental problems, while the muscles are 
in a state of quiescence, would soon become insane or 
idiotic, should he not rest to repair the loss by a meal of 
brain and nerve-making material. 

" A w T aiker, consuming muscular element and throw- 
ing off a great deal of water in perspiration, would soon 
become as stiff as a board, should he not rest to eat, and 
to drink water to maintain the suppleness of his 
muscles. 

" If man, in the exercise of his physical or mental 
strength, needs a supply equal to the loss, the child will 
need a supply adequate to its growth. Moreover, a 
child may be deficient in muscle, but precocious in 
mind ; it may be lean, grow slowly, and yet show a high 
degree of mental activity. Vice versa, its muscular sys- 



I4 2 MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 

tern may show a great development, and its mind very 
little power ; in this case the child may be very fleshy, 
well developed, but stupid. A rickety child lacks bony 
matter, as is evinced by its inability to walk, and by the 
curving of its limbs when it stands. Again: a child 
who has no brain work to do, and spends its time in 
running and jumping, will require muscle -making 
material; while one at school, deeply engaged in its 
studies, will require a constant supply of brain-making 
element. 

u In providing food for the young, therefore, the 
above suggestions should be borne in mind, so as to be 
able, as far as possible, to supply the proper proportions 
of the elements required. In cases where the system 
appears properly balanced, a diversity of articles can be 
taken at a meal to supply a reasonable quantity of the 
elements without disturbing the equilibrium. The 
appetite, which is the language of our need, is rightly 
satisfied only when just enough of each element has 
been taken to supply that need. If a person needs car- 
bonates, he may eat nitrates in great quantity and 
yet not feel satisfied; and so vice versa, one needing 
nitrates would not feel his appetite satisfied by eating 
carbonates, even in excessive quantities." (Verdi's 
Maternity?) 

The relative proportion of nitrates, carbonates, phos- 
phates and water of various articles of food has been 
carefully noted by analytical chemists ; and here will be 
appended a list of the most important articles thus ana- 
lyzed, for the convenience of the reader — the figures 
showing the percentage of the elements named, in the 
articles analyzed : 



FOOD. 



143 









Nitrates. 


Carbonates. 


Phosphates. 


Water. 


Vegetable Food. 


Muscle- 
Making. 


Heat- 
Making. 


Brain and 

Bone 

Making. 


Waste. 


Wheat . . . , 






15. 


69. 


1.6 


14. 


Barley .... 






17. 


69. 


3.5 


14. 


Oats 






17. 


66. 


3. 


13. 


Northern Corn 






12. 


73- 


1. 


14. 


Southern Corn 






35. 


45. 


4. 


14. 


Buckwheat 






8. 


75. 


1.8 


14. 


Rye .... 






13. 


7i. 


i.7 


13. 


Beans . . . 






24. 


57. 


3.5 


14. 


Peas .... 






23. 


60. 


2.5 


14. 


Rice .... 






6. 


79- 


• 5 


13. 


Potatoes . . 






1. 


22. 


•9 


75. 


Sweet Potatoes 






1. 


26. 


2.9 


67. 


Apples . . . 






5. 


10. 


1. 


84. 


Milk of Cow . 






5- 


8. 


1. 


86. 


Human Milk . , 






3- 


7- 


• 5 


89. 


Animal Food. 










Veal ....... 


16. 


16. 


4-5 


62. 


Beef 


15. 


30. 


5. 


50. 


Lamb 


11. 


35- 


3.5 


50. 


Mutton 


12. 


40. 


3-5 


44. 


Pork 


10. 


50. 


1.5 


38. 


Chicken 


20. 


35- 


4. 


73. 


Eggs, White of . . . 


15. 


none. 


4. 


80. 


Eggs, Yolk of . . . . 


17. 


28. 


5. 


54. 


Butter 


A 


11 Carbon 


ates. 





I4 4 MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 

From this table, we infer that a precocious child 
should not be fed on fish y or such articles as abound in 
phosphates. But a child at school, and consuming brain 
material, would require that class of food ; and if, 
besides, the child is lacking in muscular development, 
barley, oats, beef, etc., should be added. 

" On a very cold day, when a child is to go out, buck- 
wheat cakes and molasses would be an excellent prepar- 
atory diet, while it would be a highly improper one on a 
hot summer day. 

" For a child who plays games, or runs, nitrates and 
carbonates would be required to keep him in strength 
and heat." {Maternity.) 

Liebig, as we said before, divided food into two grand 
classes ; the respiratory, or heat-producers: the nitrogen- 
ized or tissue-making. 

To the first class, he has admitted all farinaceous, 
saccharine and oleaginous substances. The farina- 
ceous includes the cereals, such as wheat, barley, rye, 
oats, maize or Indian corn ; the pulses, as peas, beans 
and lentils; the pith of trees, as sago; the roots, as 
arrow-root, tapioca, potatoes, etc. ; these articles contain 
starch, which becomes converted by the saliva into 
sugar — sugar being chemically composed of carbon 
(charcoal) and water. 

The saccharine embraces grape-sugar, honey, cane- 
sugar, figs, dates, prunes, beets, mangoes, carrots, turnips, 
etc., which differ but little from starchy substances, 
namely in the greater proportion of water. 

The oleaginous is derived both from the vegetable and 
animal kingdom, as fat, lard, animal oil, butter, seal and 
whale oil, and the olive, linseed, walnut, and other nut- 



FOOD. I45 

oils ; these containing a great proportion of carbon, 
nitrogen, and but little water. 

On the above division life could be maintained in its 
integrity as is commonly done in some agricultural dis- 
tricts where animal food is not largely accessible. 

The nitrogenized or albuminous class is derived from 
the animal as well as the vegetable kingdoms, and par- 
ticularly from seeds, as peas and beans, from eggs, the 
flesh of animals, fish, milk and cheese. 

The gluten, the gelatine of animals and various salts 
are also good articles of diet, but only when mixed with 
the above two classes. 

The sub-acid fruits axe also contributors to healthy 
food ; their laxative properties assisting in relieving bulk 
from the intestines, such as apples, pears, plums, apricots, 
peaches, cherries, strawberries, nectarines, melons, pine- 
apples, and oranges. 

The digestibility of food has also been an object of 
great interest to the physiologist. Spallanzani, Gosse, 
Tiedman, Gmelin, Sir Astley Cooper, Trousseau, Lalle- 
mand, and many others of more recent date, have sought 
by innumerable ways to discover the difference between 
the various articles of food in the time that each re- 
quired to be digested. But it is due to Dr. Beaumont to 
say that his careful observations and experiments on the 
human being are preferable to the results obtained by 
other physiologists from their experiments on dumb ani- 
mals. 

The opening in a human stomach gave Dr. Beaumont 
great advantage over other physiologists, but this fact 
renders his discoveries only the more reliable. The 
labor of these men has not been in vain ; for although 



I4 6 MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 

they differ in some immaterial points, their differences 
are quite consistent, inasmuch as digestion is in some 
degree dependent upon age, sex, temperament, idiosyn- 
cracies, moral and physical condition, occupation, 
climate, etc., and as it is well-nigh impossible to find two 
persons exactly in the same condition, their powers of 
digestion may be different. From the experiments of 
Dr. Beaumont, Trousseau has gathered, first, that the 
meat of mammals is less easity digested than that of 
birds, and much less than that of fish ; second, that they 
are all more digestible when roasted than when fried or 
boiled; third, that beef is more easily digested than 
mutton, mutton than pork, domestic fowl than wild, fresh 
fish than salted ; fourth, that dishes prepared with milk 
are the most digestible of all except fish ; boiled milk more 
than fresh, cream more than butter or cheese; fifth, that 
soups are not very digestible ; but that farinaceous veg- 
etables are, particularly when cooked. Fruits and green 
vegetables are also said to be easily digested. 

Here below will be found Dr. Beaumont's list, arranged 
so as to show the time averagod by each article of food 
in undergoing and completing the process of digestion. 
They are placed in succession, the most digestible pre- 
ceding the others : 

ARTICLES REQUIRING NOT MORE THAN AN HOUR. 

Boiled pig's feet, boiled tripe, boiled rice. 

FROM ONE TO TWO HOURS. 

Fresh eggs, beaten ; salmon, boiled rye, broiled veni- 
son, broiled beef, liver, boiled milk 3 raw eggs, codfish, 
tapioca in soup, saur-kraut. 



FOOD. I47 

FROM TWO TO THREE HOURS. 

Fresh milk, fried eggs, roasted wild turkey, boiled wild 
turkey, roasted domestic turkey, roasted goose, broiled 
lamb, boiled gelatine, boiled beans, oysters, lean beef 
roasted, beefsteak, broiled mutton, salt pork, poached 
eggs, chicken broth, bean soup. 

FROM THREE TO FOUR HOURS. 

Boiled beef, broiled pork, roaste'd mutton, roasted 
oysters, boiled carrots, broiled sausages, dried beef, 
stewed or roasted; hard-boiled eggs or fried, mutton 
broth, oyster soup, melted butter, old cheese, wheat 
bread, broiled veal, domestic fowls, beef soup. 

FROM FOUR TO FIVE HOURS. 

Old salt beef, boiled ; salt pork, fried or boiled ; bone 
broth, fried veal, wild duck, boiled cabbage, roasted 
pork. 

The same article is often found in more than one of 
the above lists, but it will be noticed that the manner of 
cooking is different, and that it is under the varied treat- 
ment that its digestibility becomes modified. 

The experiments of Dr. Beaumont have been made 
upon one man, and should, therefore, be taken with some 
degree of allowance ; yet it must not be forgotten that 
that man was in a state of general good health. 

It is also well known that articles easily digested by 
one person prove very indigestible to another; and vice 
versa ; yet there is a general fitness of things even in 
food, and the observations prove that Dr. Beaumont's 
experiments, although taken from one single individual, 
may serve as a safe and practical guide. 



I 4 8 MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 

DOES FOOD AFFECT INDIVIDUAL CHARACTER? 

Liebig observes that the carnivora are generally 
stronger, bolder and more pugnacious than the herbiv- 
orous animals on which they prey; and in like manner, 
those nations whose food is derived from the vegetable 
kingdom differ in disposition from those who take it 
from, the animal. Houghton says : " The hunted deer 
will outrun the leqpard in a fair open chase, because the 
force supplied to its muscles "by the vegetable food is 
capable of being given out continuously for a long 
period of time; but in a sudden rush at a near distance, 
the leopard will infallibly overtake the deer, because its 
flesh-food stores up in the blood a reserve of force 
capable of being given out instantaneously in the form 
of exceedingly rapid muscular action. " The horse and 
the dog might be similar examples; the swift greyhound 
may, in a spurt, advance beyond a swift horse, but the 
horse will beat the dog in the long run, although it may 
carry considerable weight on . its back. Fothergill 
asserts, with other physiologists, that the energy of the 
British soldier is to be attributed to his liberal dietary of 
beef. M. Metz, of Mettary, the benefactor of the 
children in the Reformatories of France, declares that 
stubborn and refractory boys could be subdued by a 
vegetable diet, while the weak-minded could be made to 
hold to their resolutions by a generous diet of meats and 
wine. 

Absolute rules for diet are impossible, yet one which 
should never be infringed is moderation. The gratifica- 
tion of a moderate desire is seldom hurtful ; the stomach 
has a language of its own, and its demands seldom 



FOOD. 149 

deceive. But persons who have abused the stomach 
with indulgence, or by habits that are not in conformity 
with the preservation of a normal digestion, may have 
cravings which it would be dangerous to gratify. The 
alcoholic drinker craves stimulants, yet the application 
of stimulant is only a means to encourage an evil that 
has become a disease, and that will hasten disorganiza- 
tion and death. Gourmands and drinkers should take 
care how they gratify the cravings of a diseased stomach. 
In this case only a skillful physician is competent to 
advise the regimen. 

Girls, generally less active than boys, need not so 
much nitrogenous food. Their exercise being less, they 
require less tissue-making food. At the age of puberty, 
however, and on account of their loss of blood, more 
nutrient food may be required to supply the deficiency. - 

In treating of the diseases peculiar to women, the diet 
appropriate to each case will be suggested. 

The golden rule should be in all cases, Eat to live ; do 
not live to eat. Eat slowly and masticate thoroughly. 
Preserve your teeth by keeping them clean, and not sub- 
jecting them to injury by sudden change from a high to 
a low temperature, or vice versa. This would crack the 
enamel and expose the spongy bone inside of it to the 
corrosion of acid, and the destructive effect of the air. 
Every defective tooth should be protected with a filling 
by a skillful dentist, or be extracted. 

At meals the mind should not be preoccupied by 
cares or sorrows. This has been understood for so 
long, that the ancient Greeks and Romans at meals 
sought delectation in music and the comicalities of 
clowns. 



I S o MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 

Never take very active exercise, or sleep, immediately 
after a heavy repast (sleep retarding circulation) ; the 
stomach needs blood and quiet for a good digestion. 

Do not cool your stomach with ice, sherbets or ice 
creams after a meal. 

Do not eat to satiety; better rise with a feeling that 
you might eat more, than as if you could not give place 
to another mouthful. 

Eat at stated hours ; our system is the creature of 
habits ; irregular habits are baneful. ■ 

Do not go too long without eating ; a too long inter- 
val without food, particularly if at work, will debilitate 
the stomach, and disable it from digesting when food is 
taken. 

Animal food is heating and exciting; vegetable, cool- 
ing and soothing; meat makes more blood, but requires 
longer time to digest and needs more bodily exercise, 
else it will induce plethora. 

As animal food increases the circulation, the activity 
of the organs, and the heat of the body, it should be 
sparingly used by persons of sanguine and bilious tem- 
perament, of excitable disposition, and by those liable 
to inflammation and hemorrhages. It will be more 
suitable to temperaments of a lymphatic character, cold, 
indolent and phlegmatic. 

Meat swells less, produces less gas and is therefore 
useful to persons liable to flatulence. 

It is with some hesitation that we lay down this chap- 
ter, knowing how much the welfare of man depends on 
proper diet ; yet we cannot go further without entering 
into such details as would increase its volume beyond 
the scope of this book. We cannot but trust, however, 



FOOD. I ij i 

that the hints herein given will be of sufficient interest 
to make the mind crave for more, as the literature on 
this subject is by no means scanty. 



CHAPTER V. 

clothing; 
its lessons in the preservation of the life of girls. 

NATURE, so bountiful in every provision for the 
protection of life, has scarcely ever demonstrated 
greater wisdom than in the selection of coverings for 
animals that inhabit regions of the earth of different 
temperatures. Man, however, who is not limited to 
either space or latitude, she has left naked, but endowed 
him with an intellect capable of selecting such covering 
as season or locality may require. By these means he 
is enabled to migrate from one part of the world to 
another, exposing himself to violent atmospheric changes 
without danger. Food and respiration, although great 
contributors to the maintenance of bodily heat, would 
not suffice in the glacial regions, where the loss of caloric 
is above what nourishment and oxygen can provide. 
Had man been provided by nature with a permanent 
covering, it is easy to conceive that he could not pass 
from an arctic to an antarctic region without exposing 
himself to such sudden shocks to his constitution as 
would imperil his life. It is true that the natural cover- 
ing of animals undergoes necessary modifications in con- 
formity with the changes of seasons, and often of climate; 
but never so far as to enable the white bear of the 
glaciers to live comfortably at the tropics. Some ani- 
mals, however, migratory by nature, select the climate 



CLOTHING, IS3 

best adapted to their nature ; but those are they which 
are endowed with great swiftness of locomotion, as 
certain birds, and with the power to fly a thousand miles 
without rest in a comparatively short time ; moreover, 
this is possible only to those whose food is easily ob- 
tained from the air, from the earth, or from the water. 

The habits of man, and all his necessities for exist- 
ence, are such as to localize him. He cultivates the 
earth that it may yield him food, and in such quantity as 
will provide for him against the uncertain future ; he 
stays by his stores, and therefore does not feel compelled 
to leave the place of his birth in search of supplies. 

Every surface radiates heat, and man, to prevent such 
radiation as would lower the temperature of his body 
below the standard consistent with the preservation of 
its existence, envelops it in clothing. The amount 
of radiation of caloric from the body depends also upon 
the condition and the temperature of the air immedi- 
ately surrounding it; and as these conditions are many, 
in the different parts of the globe, and changeable even 
in the same locality, according to seasons, it follows that 
the materials for clothing must vary in their power of 
retaining or radiating heat. He has, therefore, taken 
from the animal kingdom, skins, furs, feathers, silk, wool, 
etc. ; and from the vegetable, cotton, linen, jute, etc. ; 
their adaptability for dress depending upon their power 
of conducting or retaining heat. 

All articles of dress are more or less bad conductors 
of heat, and are interposed between the external air and 
the surface of the body as mediums to adjust, at ail 
times and under all circumstances, the proper proportion 
of radiation and absorption of heat compatible with the 



i S 4 MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 

integrity of the body. The very limited stratum of air 
which, however, is left to fill the place between the 
clothing and the skin, and also within the interstices of 
the material itself, is warmed by the radiation from the 
body and remains so, protected by the outer clothing, 
maintaining thus next to the skin a medium the temper- 
ature of which is neither too high nor too low ; for the 
same power that the material has to prevent the quick 
transmission of heat from the body to the outer air it 
has to prevent the transmission of heat from the atmos- 
phere to the body. Experience has practically demon- 
strated that a cover that will keep a body warm in a 
cold temperature will also keep it cool in a heated one. 

The radiating or absorbing power of the material 
depends upon its color, its quality, texture and shape. 
Black absorbs, white reflects, caloric rays. Ice exposed 
to the rays of the sun will melt quicker under a black 
than under a white cloth. 

Heat-conducting power is very feeble in wool, silk, fur, 
feathers, and all materials, in fact, derived from the ani- 
mal kingdom ; hence they are used in the winter season, 
and in northern latitudes. The intelligent and econom- 
ical housekeeper surrounds her ice with flannel to pre- 
vent its melting rapidly, just as she envelops her babe 
in blankets to keep it warm, wool being a bad conductor 
of heat. Linen, flax and cotton, and all clothing material 
from the vegetable kingdom, are better conductors of 
heat, and are therefore useful in the summer season, and 
in regions where the temperature is generally elevated. 

The various materials for dress have also electrical re- 
lations; silk, wool, fur, and feathers possessing in a high 
degree the power, not only of developing but of retain- 



CLOTHING. IS5 

ing electricity; while flax, linen, and cotton are good 
conductors, and diffuse electricity. It is on account of 
the above-stated facts that rheumatism, neuralgia, and all 
nervous diseases that are benefited by the electric cur- 
rent, are ameliorated by wearing silk, wool, or fur, while 
they are aggravated by linen or cotton. 

The shape of clothing has also to do with the main- 
tenance or loss of heat of the body. A cover drawn 
tightly around the limbs, not permitting a stratum of air 
to be interposed between the cloth and the skin, would 
necessarily be cooler than a looser garment that would 
allow some air in the space between, for air is a bad 
conductor, and the clothing serves as a shield from the 
outer air that would otherwise absorb the heat from the 
enclosed stratum. The intelligent gardener, without 
much knowledge of science, protects his tender plants 
from the frost on the same principle, namely, by spread- 
ing a cover over them, which stops radiation, the natural 
cooling process. 

The Roman flowing robe for women and the toga for 
men were probably the most physiological vestments for 
that climate, leaving the limbs free to act, and yet pre- 
venting radiation sufficiently to keep the body comfort- 
ably warm. In latitudes where the thermometer falls 
below zero, such open dressing would allow too much 
exchange of air, and the stratum above mentioned could 
not retain the degree of heat necessary to health and 
comfort. In spite of fashion, however, intelligent com- 
munities have, upon experience, settled on a width of 
garment which is best adapted to the atmospheric con- 
ditions as well as to the different occupations in life. 

The only article of woman's clothing which attracts 



IS 6 MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 

the attention of the physiologist, on account of the ob- 
jectionable tightness, is the corset. This article of dress 
is of comparatively modern invention, having been in- 
troduced by Catherine of Medici. Bouvier, who has 
given attention to the modes of dressing the chests of 
women at various periods, says : " Anciently the women 
wore chest-bands. In the first century of the French 
monarchy, and during a greater part of the Middle Ages, 
they vacillated between the Roman band and the new 
invention, the body to the dress; i. e., the robe cut in two, 
the upper, called the body, fitting closely around the 
chest, while the lower part is left as a flowing skirt, a 
dress that prevails to this day. Towards the end of the 
Middle Ages the latter had prevailed. After the six- 
teenth century, corsets, stiffened with whale-bones, were 
introduced, which, modified to some extent, have con- 
tinued to the present day." So much has been said 
about this article that it would seem but a work of super- 
erogation to say more ; yet it is a subject of such great 
importance that even with the danger of running into 
repetition, it will be here again noticed. 

While it may be said that it is a support to the breasts, 
that it affords comfort to the wearer, it may be answered 
that a simple band, appropriately applied, would do as 
much; that all women do not need such a support, and 
that it is in this very instance where it is most injurious. 

The corset, as adopted in modern times, is a stiff, 
unwieldy instrument, covering tightly a large and most 
important ^part of the body. It is kept in place by its 
own pressure, which is exerted over the muscles of the 
chest, over the cavity of the stomach and of the abdo- 
men, thus reducing their natural capacity. When press- 



CLOTHING. IS7 

ing upon the bosom, it prevents its development, and 
sinks the nipple into its substance, rendering the process 
of nursing almost impossible ; pressing upon the chest it 
prevents a full expansion of the lungs by its fixed limits, 
and by paralyzing the muscles; pressing on the abdo- 
men, it retards the circulation of the blood so important 
to the organs contained therein, it reduces the cavity 
and forces the intestines downwards, the latter pressing 
the womb, which eventually becomes the victim of dis- 
placements ; pressing upon the stomach, it reduces its 
capacity and its power of muscular motion, necessary to 
the process of digestion. That article of dress there- 
fore may, when used only for the purpose of vanity, be 
the source of dyspepsia, consumption, prolapsus and 
ulceration of the womb, leucorrhcea, constipation, and 
hemorrhoids, so common among the most fashionable 
class of women. 

As to the relations of color to dress, it is, for our 
purposes, chiefly a matter of heat. A cook wishing 
to heat water rapidly places it in a black caldron oyer 
the fire, or wishing to keep it warm for a long time 
after its removal from the fire, places it in a shining 
white pot. Experience has taught that; but the ex- 
planation is that black is a conductor of heat and that 
therefore when the heat is external it will pass more 
readily through a black caldron, and would as easily 
pass outwardly should the same black caldron be used 
to retain the fluid after the fire is withdrawn. White 
being a conductor of much less power would not heat 
the water so rapidly when exposed to the fire, but would 
retain the heat longer when the surrounding air is cooler 
than the water. 



i 5 8 MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 

Dr. Stark, who has made experiments upon the heat- 
conducting power of color, has come to the conclusion 
that black stands first, blue second, red third, green 
fourth, yellow fifth, and white last. 

Count Rumford and Sir Edward Home recommended 
that black be preferred in hot climates, in the shade 
(and, we suppose, when the external temperature, however - 
warm, is below that of the body, namely, ninety-eight 
Fahrenheit) because the heat would more quickly radiate 
from the body. That is even said to be the reason why 
the negro is able to live in a hot atmosphere; for, although 
under the sun he would absorb more heat than the white 
man, in the shade he would also radiate more, and thus 
bring about the wonted compensation. The same au- 
thorities declare that colors differ in power of absorbing 
moisture, and that, in that connection, they follow the 
rule of their heat-conducting power, and therefore sug- 
gest that in miasmatic localities, and particularly after 
the sun has passed below the horizon, persons should 
wear clothing of light color in preference, and they even 
blame the physician, a person more exposed to contagion 
and infection than any other, for his preference for black 
in his articles of dress. 

GENERALITIES. 
REGARDING THE CLOTHING OF SPECIAL PARTS. 

Head. — The head should be kept cool, particularly 
in children, as heat predisposes that organ to congestion. 
The adult need w T ear but what will protect from the rays 
of the sun and from the rain. Non-conductors, as felt, 
silk, wool or furs, are generally injurious. The loss of 
hair so common among men is from wearing around the 



CLOTHING. 159 

head materials that retain both heat and moisture. In 
the countries where women wear but a veil upon the 
head, as in Italy, Corsica, and the East, the hair grows 
luxuriantly and does not fall. False hair and other 
appliances, used to give a fictitious volume, injure the 
growth of the natural hair on account of the weight they 
impose and the heat and moisture they retain. 

The Neck. — The blood circulation of the neck is not 
only great but superficial, the carotid arteries and the 
jugular veins being near the surface. Pressure around 
the neck, therefore, would be highly injurious, as it 
would prevent the flux and reflux of blood to and from 
the brain. The use of furs around the neck, except in 
extremely cold climates, is mischievous, by inducing 
perspiration to which the air has easy access, cooling it 
rapidly, and thereby producing catarrhal diseases and 
sore throat. 

The Trunk. — This part of the body, containing so 
many noble organs, requires the most intelligent treat- 
ment in the way of dress. In climates where the 
changes of temperature are sudden, flannel is the mate- 
rial that should surround it, for it retains heat and 
prevents a too quick evaporation. In climates of a more 
even and moderate temperature, cotton or linen may be 
worn with comfort, provided the person wearing the 
same be not exposed to drafts of air even on a hot day. 
The condition of persons should be taken into consider- 
ation at all times ; for delicate persons of lymphatic 
temperament, evolving but little heat, or persons subject 
to catarrhs, bronchitis, pneumonia, rheumatism, and 
neuralgia, should wear flannel at all times, although its 
thickness may be changed in accordance with the tern- 



jSo mothers and daughters. 

perature of the atmosphere. ' The partial exposure of 
the chest, so customary among women of all ages, is 
extremely dangerous, from the radiation of the natural 
heat of that part and the quick evaporation of its moist- 
ure — a cooling process which predisposes to congestion. 

Extremities. — An old adage says, " Keep your head 
cool and your feet warm." Thick soles are great pro- 
tectors to the feet; leather, being but a feeble conductor, 
keeps them cool when placed upon a warm soil, and 
warm when upon a cool one. The paper soles formerly 
so much used by fashionable women are injurious. Their 
thinness and elasticity cause the foot to yield to every 
unevenness of the ground, rendering walking so tiresome 
and painful as not to be prolonged without discomfort. 
Fortunately, Fashion has grown sensible, and now pre- 
scribes substantial soles for women to walk on. 

Tight shoes punish the wearer with both corns and 
bunions, and therefore need but little discussion on our 
part; — fashion and vanity have done much to injure the 
feet of our women. A good shoe is a shoe that fits, it is 
neither too large nor too small; a large shoe injures by 
friction. High heels change the center of gravity of the 
body, throw the knees and pelvis forward, and the upper 
trunk backward to maintain equilibrium, thus predispos- 
ing to dangerous curvatures of the spine. 



That consummate hygienist, Hufeland, laid down cer- 
tain precepts about dressing that we gladly quote here : 

"Dress should not prevent the evaporation of the 
body, and not be so heavy as to fatigue. Furs should 
be discarded, because they retain too much heat, excite 
perspiration, and prevent evaporation. In this case the 



CLOTHING. 161 

deleterious matter given out by the skin is retained on 
the surface of the body, becomes absorbed and injurious 
to the organism. For this reason too warm clothing is 
injurious to feeble constitutions, and to persons subject 
to rheumatism. Young people in good health should 
adopt light vestments in preference to very heavy and 
warm ones. Exercise is the best producer of heat for 
young people and assists evaporation. Fat, pork, cheese, 
candies, are creators of heat, causing no evaporation, 
and, therefore, should be avoided, particularly during 
warm seasons. 

" Persons who have passed the meridian of life, when 
animal heat and evaporation are on the decrease, should 
wear garments of wool ; and those of a lymphatic tem- 
perament, inclined to fat and indolence, those leading 
a sedentary life, and those subject to catarrh, mucous 
discharges, diarrhoea, dysentery and gout, should be 
particular in observing this rule. 

"Wool is also beneficial to persons subject to conges- 
tions, vertigo, neuralgia, ear-ache, rush of blood, cough, 
pain and oppression of the lungs. Wool excites the 
skin, relieves the blood by evaporation, and is therefore 
a preventive of consumption, hemorrhoids, and all 
bloody flux. It is useful to those whose nervous power 
is feeble, to hypochondriacs and hysterical persons. It 
is a protector against cold and heat, dampness and wind. 
It is preferable in latitudes where atmospheric changes 
are sudden and frequent. It is not beneficial to persons 
who perspire easily, or who are possessed of much elec- 
tricity, nor to all those who have great vitality, or who 
are predisposed to cutaneous eruptions. All clothing 
made of wool should be changed often, because it retain? 



i62 MOTHERS AXD DAUGHTERS. 

the emanations from the skin which would become a 
source of irritation." 

Ed. A. Parkes, military hygienist, also says: "Wool 
being a bad conductor of heat, and a great absorber of 
water (hygropic water) is superior to cotton or linen. 
During perspiration the evaporation from the surface of 
the body is necessary to reduce the heat which is gener- 
ated by exercise. When the exercise is finished the 
evaporation still goes on, and to such an extent as to 
chill the former. When dry woolen clothing is put on 
after exertion the vapor from the surface of the body is 
c en censed in the wool, and gives out again the large 
amount of heat which had become latent when the water 
was vaporized. Therefore a woolen covering, from this 
cause alone, at once feels warm when used during sweat- 
ing. In the case of cotton and linen the perspiration 
passes through them and evaporates from the external 
surface without condensation, the radiation of heat then 
continues. These facts explain why dry woolen clothes 
are so useful after exertion." 

Pettenkofer shows by experiment the absorbing powers 
of wool compared with linen, and comes to the same 
conclusion. 

During convalescence, from debility and lack of red 
globules in the blood persons are very susceptible to 
cold : hence, flannel should be worn by them, particu- 
larly when the debility is a consequence of rheumatism. 
intestinal inflammation, and pulmonary diseases. 

There exists a prejudice against wearing wool in the 
summer season: but that is due to the ignorance of the 
fact that the danger to health is from a too rapid evapor- 
ation of the fluid emanating from the skin. The laborer 



CLOTHING. xG^ 

in hot countries always wears his flannel, knowing that 
otherwise he would be easily chilled. To demonstrate 
the cooling process of evaporation one has only to come 
out of a bath and remain undried for a few minutes ; 
unless the air surrounding the body is of a very high 
temperature and moist, the person will become chilled 
in a very few seconds. 

Governments have now discarded linen in the clothing 
of soldiers ; and in Italy, in July and August, the soldier 
wears his woolen uniform, and at night, when exposed 
to malaria, while on duty, a white woolen cloak. (See 
suggestions about colors, p. 158.) 

REFLECTIONS UPON DRESSING. 
(From Author \? "Maternity") 

" Dress is not intended to be simply a cover to our 
nakedness; it has been invented in civilized countries 
as a protection of the body from vicissitudes of weather, 
and sudden changes from a high to a low degree of 
atmospheric temperature. Dress is to maintain within 
the body a certain amount of heat required for the cir- 
culation of our blood, the action of our organs, muscles 
and limbs. We know the effect of extreme heat or 
extreme cold on the human body; hence we can easily 
imagine that even in the intermediate degrees they must 
produce effects which, although not instantly fatal, will 
nevertheless induce changes in our system incompatible 
with the laws of health. 

" The object in dressing being to prevent this evapora- 
tion of necessary heat from the body, it follows that, 
according to the elevation or falling of the surrounding 
temperature, the dress must be adapted. Heat must be 



j6 4 mothers and daughters. 

equal, evaporation must be equal. To maintain this 
equilibrium, the body must be equally dressed all over. 

" As the temperature affects the circulation it follows 
also that when the dress is partial the temperature is 
unequal, and the circulation of course unequal also. 

"From the moment the circulation is unequal the blood 
flows more freely in one part than in another. The part 
more exposed to evaporation, or to a lower degree of 
surrounding temperature, will have a circulation slower 
than the parts protected from both. The cooling of the 
surface induces contraction of the capillaries, which 
drives the blood away from them — making them very 
sluggish, to other parts — making them very active. From 
the moment this fact is established the equilibrium is 
disturbed, and the human machine deranged in its oper- 
ations. The great study of keeping a clock in perfect 
running order is to maintain the equilibrium of forces 
amongst the different parts. When one part, like the 
pendulum, chain, spring, or wheel, is differently affected 
by the surrounding temperature the expansion becomes 
unequal, the equilibrium is lost, and the clock is out of 
order. Philosophical mechanics have discovered this, 
and have used every skillful means to balance the gains 
and losses in the expansion of the metals by using metals 
of equal susceptibility, or of such known variations that 
the changes of one are compensated by the changes in 
another, &c. If we are so careful with clocks, why are 
we not with ourselves ? 

" Civilization, with all its wonderful apparatus for heat- 
ing houses, will have done a great injury to mankind 
unless it provides also the means to protect us when we 
leave our luxurious homes for that open temple where 



CLOTHING. 165 

the sun is the only fire and its satellites the only lumin- 
aries in its absence. 

"The transition from 70 Fahrenheit within our abodes 
to zero without, must be productive of sudden changes 
in our circulation, unless clothing prevent it by being 
equally and sufficiently spread over the entire body. 

" The feet, that touch the ground, which, in its cooled 
state, would absorb much of their heat, need adequate 
protection, else the equilibrium will be disturbed and 
a cold be the consequence. The dress of women is not 
calculated to protect their lower limbs and the abdomen 
as well as the upper part of the body; this is another 
great and general source of disturbance of that equilib- 
rium. Those former parts become sluggish in their 
functions, and finally the seat of permanent derange- 
ment; the bowels become costive, the womb subject to 
congestions, congestions inducing painful menstruation, 
leucorrhcea, prolapsus, ulceration, &zc. 

"The chest or thorax, if not equally protected all over, 
will be liable to the same functipnal disturbance. The 
lungs, being thus subject to a flux and re-flux quite 
irregular, will become disorganized ; coughs, sore throats, 
pleurisy, pneumonia, consumption, must follow. The 
heart, the recipient and propeller of the blood, must be- 
come deranged when this fluid is constantly varied in its 
flow. If more blood is driven to it from the surface of 
the body than its natural capacity can receive and propel, 
the heart must become enlarged and enfeebled ; its deli- 
cate valves, that are to open or close according as the 
heart receives or expels, must become troubled and 
finally disorganized ; and then we have a sad condition 
of things, which can only bespeak an early death or per- 



T tf6 MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 

rnanent invalidism. The liver, kidneys, &c, are subject 
to the same influences and same risks. 

" As it is with partial exposure, so it is with tight lacing. 
Pressure drives the blood away from the parts, the veins 
and capillaries being intensely elastic. Pressure not 
only prevents development of the parts, but actually 
causes absorption of the tissue. Tie a leg sufficiently 
tight to prevent the circulation of the blood for any 
length of time, and it will dwindle into incredible small- 
ness. i 

" Commence early, therefore, in the education of dress. 
It is beautiful to look on the dimpled arms, chest, and 
and legs of an infant; but think of the consequences! 
The idea that exposure makes them hardy is not bad ; 
but then expose all parts equally, and do not keep them 
for eighteen hours in a temperature of 70 and six hours 
in an atmosphere from io° to zero. 

" If custom forces you into these incongruities, see 
that your child goes out into the fresh air with a body 
equally covered. Bare legs and bare arms are not con- 
ducive to its hardihood where the other parts are heavily 
clad. Better it should go naked, like the savages, and 
that your houses had no fires. Pleasure-grounds and 
shady-sides have sent millions of little beings to un- 
timely graves. It is not the fault of the pleasure- 
grounds nor the shady-sides ; but it is sitting on the grass 
and on the earth of a temperature much lower than the 
body, when the clothes that come between serve only to 
cover it from sight, not to protect it from the absorption 
of its heat. If a child is lightly clad, spread a shawl or 
a cushion underneath; a grown person in the same con- 



CLOTHING. i6y 

dition would do the same ; it is only those delicate little 
creatures that are allowed such careless treatment. 

HOW DRESS MAY AFFECT GIRLS. 

" We all love to see children looking pretty, cunning, 
and attractive. The vanity of mothers does a great 
deal towards the attainment of this aim. Let us com- 
mence from the period that a girl baby leaves off her 
long robes for short skirts. The mother will take care 
that the baby's chest is well covered; the pretty limbs, 
however, will be exposed, the little stockings short, and 
the drawers made of cotton or linen, but thin. If the 
child goes out : " Nurse, put a sacque on the baby, and 
do not let her go out without her hat, it is cool to-day !" 
Unless it is decided winter, no additional clothing is 
suggested for her limbs or abdomen. The child goes 
out, sits on the ground, the temperature of which being 
lower robs the child of some of the heat from the legs 
and the lower part of her . body. So the child goes 
from year to year without much difference in her ap- 
parel, the dress of the lower half of the body being 
much less in proportion than the dress of the upper 
half. The putting on of an extra skirt does not help 
this difference a great deal. In a small child the skirts 
are so short that they cannot be considered sufficient to 
keep the child warm any better than an umbrella carried 
above one's head. The cold air must necessarily get 
under the skirts, and the warmer the body the quicker 
the air will rush up — on the principle of a flue. 

" In this way the temperature of the body of the girl, 
from her waist down, is kept from year to year several 



j08 mothers and daughters. 

degrees lower than that of her body from the waist up- 
wards. 

" The consequence is serious in the extreme. Every one 
knows that cold contracts the skin, veins, and arteries, 
and propels the blood from the surface. Put your hand 
in ice-water for a few minutes, and you will see it shrunk 
and colorless, for the blood has been driven from it. 
This process is going on all the time that the child is less 
warm in one part of the body than in another. In the 
coolest part the circulation becomes slower as the blood 
is driven away. Where is the blood driven to ? To the 
other parts of the body, where it is not wanted, where it 
clogs up and actually causes passive congestion. 

"What is the first ill effect produced? Constipation. 
The bowels, like the stomach, have their functions 
to perform in digestion; they require the same quantity 
of animal heat; they require unobstructed circulation. 

"But to expose the surface of the abdomen causes 
great evaporation of needed heat; the cold drives the 
blood to the interior, causing a clogging up in the 
internal circulation ; the digestion, robbed of the heat, 
its operation interfered with, becomes gradually slower, 
all its functions slower and delayed; and constipation 
is a natural result of the whole. Is this not true? 
Witness eight women out of ten constipated ! Why 
are men not so prone to constipation? Because their 
dress is calculated to keep the whole body of an equal 
temperature, and their circulation unimpeded. Witness 
the children of the poorer class. They may be ex- 
posed as much, nay, a great deal more, than those 
of the wealthier class, but their exposure is not partial; 
if they are thinly dressed, they are so from head to 



CLOTHING. T 6g 

foot; if they have no drawers, they have no flannel 
shirt; if they have no shoes they have no hat. Con- 
stipation, then, is the effect of unequal dressing. 

" But, again, constipation is the almost universal cause 
of displacements of the womb. These congestions of 
the womb, inducing leucorrhoea and ulceration ; these 
frequent retentions of the menses ; this universal pain- 
ful menstruation; these irregularities, depriving the 
woman of her health, her vigor, her happiness, are 
all due to this unequal dressing, which by causing 
unequal circulation implants the seeds of disease and 
disorder from earliest infancy. 

"When will woman love her children better than 
fashion ? When she does, when she dresses them 
according to physiological common sense, then, and 
then only, will our women be • strong and healthy ; 
then will they go without sick headaches and neural- 
gias ; then will they go without constipation and piles ; 
then will they go without the eternal "pain in the 
back." 

" How can the mother secure this ? As soon as the 
baby is old enough to wear short dresses, let the mother s 
according to the season of the year, dress her equally 
all over. If it is summer light drawers will do, as she 
will wear but little above. As the cold season comes 
on, and she puts on the baby a flannel shirt, let her 
put on her flannel drawers. If she thinks the child 
needs more for the protection of her chest, let her think 
that the child will need as much for the protection of 
her limbs and abdomen. 

"Thus let this system be continued, not until the 



I7 MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 

girl has arrived at the age of puberty only, but even 
after, and until she will need no dress at all. 

" How does constipation cause displacement ? If the 
bowels are not moved daily, fecal matter must accum- 
ulate within, distend them, and finally deprive them of 
the natural elasticity that causes them to expel the 
obnoxious contents. When they get loaded they press 
downward and all around them; they press down the 
womb, or they impact the rectum, and thrust the womb 
forward upon the bladder. They press upon the 
arteries, and prevent the purified blood from going to 
give sustenance to other organs. They press upon 
veins, and prevent the return of blood, causing a clog- 
ging up of the hemorrhoidal veins, which, in their 
turn, cause " piles; " or of the veins of the limbs, caus- 
ing "varicose veins. " The veins, so distended, ooze 
out water from their walls, and cause dropsy. Thus 
constipation, together with the continual draft on the 
abdomen, will cause congestion of the womb; conges- 
tion will cause inflammation; inflammation will cause 
leucorrhcea and ulceration; and all these disorders 
will cause such debility of the womb as will disable 
it from carrying a child longer than six or eight weeks ; 
hence the constant miscarriages occurring. 

" Let the mother bear this in mind ; let her save her 
child from constipation, and she will save her from 
a hundred and one disorders that will render her life 
a misery. And, to do this, let her begin with the 
child's earliest years, to dress her equally all over." 

"the cowl does not make the friar." 
This truism, we are almost inclined to say, is not true; 



CLOTHING, 1?I 

if not in its .literal sense, at least in its philosophical 
acceptation. Dress is more often an outer expression of 
self than that saying would imply. There is disguise in 
everything ; but we think the disguise is the exception, 
not the rule. If persons acting in a disorderly manner 
should be suddenly arrested by a person in the garb of 
a policeman, and receive from the latter the order to 
follow him to the nearest police-station, nine out of ten 
would follow without questioning his authority. If, in 
time of war, persons going on a certain route to a com- 
mon destination should suddenly be halted by a man in 
the recognized uniform of a soldier and ordered to 
return, nine out of ten would return without asking for 
his commission. A needy person, out at elbows, un- 
washed and uncombed, found on one's premises, is at 
once looked upon as an intruder, or suspected as a 
robber, and probably thrust out unceremoniously. But 
if the person is neatly and comely dressed, the inquiry 
might be made of him in a polite manner^ " What do 
you wish, sir ? " The thief that wants to pick the pocket 
of a gentleman dresses himself in the conventional garb 
of a gentleman. It is true that in his case the dress 
does not make the gentleman ; but his experience has 
taught him that in the majority of cases it does, and 
therefore he trusts that his exception will not be de- 
tected. 

Clothes are emblematic. A neat, well-dressed person 
is generally a person of order; slovenly in his dress, 
he is most likely to be slovenly in his habits and in his 
thoughts. 

A philosopher says : " All visible things are emblems ; 
what thou seest is not there on its own account ; strictly 



I? 2 MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS, 

taken, is not there at all. Matter exists only spiritually 
and to represent some Idea and body it forth. Hence 
clothes, despicable as we think them, are so unspeak- 
ably important. The soldier even in citizen's dress 
bespeaks the soldier, for his coat is trim to his body and 
his breeches must fit his well-turned legs. The farmer, 
even in soldier's dress, is the farmer still ; for buttons 
trouble him, and his easy going is interfered with by the 
close-fitting uniform ; he lets it bag, and looks the sloven 
farmer. ,, So the dress is the external expression of the 
body within. There are those who affect to despise the 
conventionalities regarding dress, but such persons suffer 
from a misconception of its true character. 

Neatness, uniformity with conventionalities, without 
entering into the excesses of fashion, is at all times the 
most attractive element of dress. 



CHAPTER VI. 

AIR. 
ATMOSPHERIC CONDITIONS IN RELATION TO HUMAN HEALTH, 

HUMANITY dwells in a sea of ^ air, as fish dwell in 
a sea of water ; and as the latter must be affected 
by the quality of the water, so the former must be 
affected by the condition of the atmosphere. A study 
that would enable us to at once detect the multitudinous 
changes and varied conditions of the atmosphere would 
be not only useful but immense. Such a work is, of course, 
impossible in connection with this book. Yet feeling 
that the omission of a subject so pertinent to hygiene 
would in great measure defeat the object sought to be 
attained, the conditions of the atmosphere that more 
generally affect the human economy will be treated in 
this chapter, classified as follows: hot and dry — cold 
and dry — hot and moist — cold and moist ; movement of 
the air — mountain air — sea air; rapid changes of tem- 
perature ; impure air of dwellings ; effect of combustion 
of coal, wood, gas, oil, candles, etc., on the air we 
breathe. 

HOT AND DRY ATMOSPHERE. 

Under the influence of this atmosphere the internal 
organs are debilitated, while the external ones are ex- 
cited. According to Michel Levi, the skin is the first to 
undergo modifications ; its color is heightened, the flux 
of fluids swells it, which is relieved by an abundant 
secretion, known as perspiration, When this fluid finds 



I?4 MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 

exit through the skin, the urine decreases and the inter- 
nal mucous substances become dry, causing a sensation 
of thirst. 

The elevation of external temperature tends to raise 
the temperature of the surface of the body in a higher 
degree than that of the organs of the interior. The 
rarefied air, containing in proportion less oxygen, causes 
the lungs to work harder for a sufficient supply ; hence 
respiration is accelerated ; the heart follows the same 
necessity for the purpose of oxydizing the blood already 
surcharged with carbon. 

The capillaries are peculiarly excited by the flux of 
blood, and by the effort to relieve themselves of the 
pressure. Under this abnormal stimulating process and 
loss of water, the internal linings become dry, the appe- 
tite decreased, digestion languid, and intestinal action 
slow. The great loss of water to which the blood is 
subjected, and the rapidity of its course stimulated by 
dry heat, predisposes to that plethoric condition which 
induces congestive headache, sunstroke or apoplexy. 
Even when its effects are not serious or alarming, the 
head feels heavy, the mind oppressed, and a general 
lethargy, causing repugnance to motion or activity of 
any form, supervenes. The nervous system becomes 
prostrated without commensurate action, producing even 
the opposite effect of lethargy — namely, restlessness and 
insomnia. Persons having inhabited latitudes where hot 
and dry atmosphere prevails will undoubtedly concur in 
the above assertions. 

COLD AND DRY ATMOSPHERE. 

This atmosphere affects people according to individual 



AIR. I?5 

temperaments; the bilious-sanguine temperament being 
able to resist a cold and dry atmosphere better than a 
lymphatic. Age has also its influence, as old people and 
infants are less able to bear it. Food increases the 
ability to resist a low temperature, as it is well known 
that oily substances containing a large proportion of 
carbon supply that element to the body, which, when 
coming in contact with the oxygen inspired from the air, 
evolve the heat necessary for the maintenance of life. 
The Esquimaux, in conformity with this natural law, 
subsist on meats containing great proportions of oil, or 
even on oil itself. 

The physiological effect of a dry and cold atmosphere 
is to contract the organs of the surface — namely, the 
skin and its capillaries — and thus determine blood to 
the interior, causing congestion of the organs therein 
situated ; the heart becomes oppressed, general stagna- 
tion of the circulation is induced, which, when carried 
to excess, produce lethargy and general paralysis. 

The effect of cold depends, however, upon the react- 
ing power of the person exposed to it, as experience has 
taught that the power of resistance to cold is different 
in different individuals. But continued exposure to cold 
predisposes even the strong to inflammation of the bron- 
chial tubes (bronchitis), of the substance of the lungs 
(pneumonia), of the muscular fibres, or of the synovial 
lining surfaces of the articulations (rheumatism). Hence 
these maladies are more frequent in winter than in sum- 
mer, and are induced by suppressed capillary circula- 
tion; and in pulmonary affections also, by the excess of 
respiratory action in the attempt to hasten combustion 
for the production of necessary heat. 



I? 6 MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 

DAMP AND HOT AIR. 

It is well known that this atmospherical condition 
favors decomposition of animal and vegetable matter, 
during which process gases injurious to health are 
evolved. It is a heavy atmosphere, that induces debility, 
disturbs the appetite, and renders all the functions of 
digestive organs slow. Under this pressure respiration 
is impeded, and the heart, thus oppressed, beats feebly. 
The body, absorbing moisture, becomes heavier, and the 
kidneys are forced to make extra efforts to relieve it of 
the excess of water, from which follows a greater secre- 
tion of urine. Evaporation of the surface is prevented 
by the surrounding moisture, and hence perspiration can 
not come to the relief of the sufferer. 

Humidity is also an absorber and a good conductor of 
miasmas; so that in crowded cities, where malarias 
emanate from the filthy surface of the streets, endemics 
and epidemics are likely to prevail during warm and 
moist weather. - 

The effect of this atmosphere upon the nervous system 
is quite remarkable, as evinced by the melancholy, bad 
humor and weariness felt by some people who suffer 
while it prevails. " In chronic lung diseases moist air is 
generally most agreeable, as it allays cough. The evap- 
oration from the lungs produced by a dry atmosphere 
appears to irritate them." — Parkes. 

COLD AND HUMID AIR. 

This atmosphere is generally dangerous to human life, 
because the water held in suspension is a conductor of 
heat. Persons exposed to it feel keenly its effects, heat 



AIR. if] 

being extracted from them very rapidly. The dampness 
deposited on the surface of the body is another source 
of abstraction of animal heat. One is more quickly 
chilled in a damp than in a dry, cold atmosphere. It is 
on account of these facts that the inhabitants of our 
Atlantic coast feel the cold more quickly when the ther- 
mometer is at 40 degrees than the people of Minnesota 
when their thermometer stands below zero. Cold damp- 
ness reduces the transpiration of the skin to its mini- 
mum without producing the tonic effects of dry cold 
air. Under its influence the tissues are relaxed, vitality 
is lowered, the circulation less active, and the respira- 
tion slow in decarbonizing blood ; the evacuations of 
the kidneys and intestines increase, while digestion and 
appetite fail; rheumatism, catarrh, and scrofula abound 
where this atmosphere prevails. 

Michel Levi, in relation to the effect of atmospheres 
on the human system, sums up as follows : " Elec- 
tricity stimulates the nervous system ; light affects the 
coloring and plastic elements of the blood ; heat acts on 
the skin, excites the liver, and irritates the brain; cold 
favors hyperemia by increasing respiration, digestion, and 
nutrition ; humidity affects the cellular tissue and the 
mucous membranes, and tends to increase the white 
fluids ; dryness maintains the tone of muscular fibres, 
facilitates the evaporations of the skin, and induces har- 
mony in nervous action." 

MOVEMENT OF THE AIR. 

Parkes says : " This is a very important climatic con- 
dition. The effect on the body is twofold. A cold 
wind abstracts heat, and, in proportion to its velocity, a 



I 7 8 MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 

hot wind carries away little heat by direct abstraction, 
but, if dry, increases evaporation, and in that way may in 
part counteract its own heating power. Both, probably, 
act on the structure of nerves of the skin, and on the 
contractility of the cutaneous vessels ; and may thus in- 
fluence the rate of evaporation, and possibly affect also 
other organs." 

It is on account of the too quick evaporation of the 
body that sitting in a draft is so dangerous. 

MOUNTAIN AIR. 

" As a curative agent mountain air (that is, the conse- 
quences of lessened pressure chiefly) ranks very high in 
all anaemic affections from whatever cause (malaria, 
hemorrhage, digestive feebleness, even lead and mercury 
poisoning), and it would appear from Hermann Weber's 
observations that the existence of valvular heart dis- 
ease is, if proper rules are observed, no contraindica- 
tion against the lower elevations (2,000 to 3,000 feet). 
Neuralgia, gout, and rheumatism are all benefited by 
high alpine positions. Scrofula and consumption have 
been long known to be rare among the dwellers on high 
lands, and the curative effect on these diseases of such 
places is also marked; but it is possible that the open 
air life which is led has an influence, as it is now known 
that great elevation is not necessary for the cure of 
phthisis." (Parkes.) Dr. James Blake, of California, a 
reliable authority on the treatment of phthisis, adopted 
the plan of keeping his patients in the open air, and 
recommended them to sleep out, even without any tent ; 
the result, it is said, was an astonishing improvement in 
digestion and sanguinification. Our experience during 



AIR, 



179 



the war corresponds with Dr. Blake's. Many soldiers 
who passed through Washington in the most precarious 
condition from pulmonary affections returned strong and 
in a perfect state of health; and upon inquiry they 
stated that in a few weeks after camping out, in tents or 
without, their digestion improved, which was followed 
by a quick and remarkable improvement of the whole 
system. They went out as invalids; they returned with 
vigor renewed and health restored. 

SEA AIR. 

By reason of atmospheric pressure more oxygen is 
absorbed by the same number of inspirations on the sea 
than on the mountains. The air is kept pure by the 
almost constant breezes and vapors containing saline 
properties, and is less hot in summer and less cold in 
winter. It is therefore very useful to lymphatic temper- 
peraments, to persons affected by chronic maladies, as 
scrofula, chlorosis, anaemia, neuralgia, dyspepsia, and 
hypochondria. It is peculiarly adapted to girls of late 
menstruation, affected by leucorrhcea, hysteria, general 
debility, or displacements of the uterus from the weak- 
ness of the suspensory ligaments. 

The sea air of the temperate regions of Florida, South 
Carolina, or of the shores of the Mediterranean and on 
the western side of the Rocky Mountains, is of extreme 
value to invalids with lung troubles, particularly during 
winter. 

Sea air acts as a tonic, increasing the appetite. The 
infinitesimal doses of iodine, chlorine, soda, and potassa 
contained therein greatly assist in the cure of scrofulous 



X go MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 

diseases, as tuberculous phthisis, glandular enlargements, 
chronic diarrhoea, &c. 

RAPID CHANGES OF TEMPERATURE. 

" The exact physiological effects of these rapid 
changes have not been traced out, and these sudden 
vicissitudes are often met by altered clothing or other 
means of varying the temperature of the body. The 
greatest influence of rapid changes of temperature ap- 
pears to occur when the state of the body in some way 
coincides with or favors their action. Thus the sudden 
checking of the profuse perspiration by a cold wind pro- 
duces catarrhs, inflammations, and neuralgia. I have 
been astonished, however, to find how well phthisical 
persons will bear great changes of temperature if they 
are not exposed to moving currents of air ; and there 
can be little doubt that the wonderful balance of the 
system is soon readjusted. " (Parkes.) 

AIR OF DWELLINGS. 

The health of the community and of every individual 
is proportionate to the purity of the air breathed. 
Everything added and foreign to the constituents of 
pure air will, when breathed, affect the human organism 
unfavorably. Considering how many impurities ema- 
nate from the earth, and particularly from localities 
crowded with animals or loaded with decomposing veg- 
etable and animal matter, it is rarely, except on mountains 
and on the sea, that air chemically pure is found ; it is 
therefore our duty, and particularly the duty of those 
who superintend the raising of tender children and girls 
of susceptible organization, to study and learn the 



AIR. I g I 

modes and means by which pure air is rendered impure, 
so as to be able to secure for those under their care the 
air that is compatible with human health. 

Impurities enter into the air in the form of vapors, 
gases, or solid particles. Oftentimes these impurities 
cannot be detected by taste, smell, or sight ; and they 
are then more dangerous on account of being breathed 
in quantity without a knowledge of their presence. This 
fact should render people careful, and anxious to know 
the nature of these impurities in order to prevent or 
avoid them. 

It must be borne in mind, as a cardinal principle, that 
every animal would be a nuisance unto itself unless 
means were adopted to get rid of the emanations of its 
body and the exhalations of its lungs. 

The limit of the life of a person, placed in a room of 
a given size, but air-tight, could be very easily prognos- 
ticated by measuring the amount of air contained in the 
room. At every second he would consume its oxygen 
and taint it with carbonic acid. For instance, an adult 
exhales fifteen cubic feet of carbonic acid in twenty-four 
hours; when the proportion of carbonic acid has reached 
fifty to a thousand cubic feet of air, it has become 
fatal to human life ; hence in a room of one thousand 
cubic feet, i. <?., a room say ten feet square and ten 
feet high, the person inhabiting that room would die 
in three days and three hours. This length of time is 
given, assuming that only carbonic acid would exist there 
as impurity ; but his life would come sooner to an end 
on account of other impure emanations from his skin 
and lungs. From the experiments and experience of 
many physicists and physiologists, it is now ascertained 



!g 2 MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 

that an adult would require three thousand feet of pure 
air, supplied every hour, in order to maintain the atmos- 
phere of a room of an area of one thousand cubic feet 
in a normal state of purity. 

Ventilation, which means the admission of pure air, is, 
therefore, a necessity to the life of all animals ; and from 
this we can logically deduce that the length of life of 
people inhabiting dwellings is in proportion to the intro- 
duction therein of pure air. 

The rooms that we inhabit, and particularly those that 
are constantly occupied by children, or by people whose 
vocation does not permit easy and frequent transition 
from one place to another, and the rooms that are not 
provided with sufficient ventilation, require much care 
from those who have the charge of them; particularly 
for the sake of the children, who need pure air for health 
and growth. 

The atmosphere of inhabited rooms, when not freely 
ventilated, is found to contain too great a proportion of 
carbonic acid to be healthy; for every person inhabiting 
the same will give out on an average fifteen cubic feet 
of carbonic acid in twenty-four hours. 

The normal proportion of this noxious gas contained 
in the air is, in volume, about one to twenty-five hundred 
feet, and in that diluted quantity it is innocuous; but 
suppose a room twenty by twenty-five, nine feet high, oc- 
cupied by five persons, seventy-five cubit feet of carbonic 
acid would, in twenty-four hours, be given out in exchange 
for the oxygen of that atmosphere, and if the ventilation 
be not adequate to replace that oxygen and greatly 
dilute the carbonic acid, that atmosphere would be 
deadly. It must not be forgotten, too, that the air of 



AIR. 183 

inhabited rooms will, besides, contain scaly epithelium 
from the skin and from the lungs; fibres of cotton, 
linen or wool ; particles of articles of food, wood or 
coal ; minute hairs or parts of hairs ; emanations from 
wall paper, particularly if damp, as mildew, fungi, and, 
if the paper be green, probably arsenic. 

Sleeping in a close room, unless it be of very large 
dimensions, is unhealthy. Any one having visited a 
bed-room which has had the doors and windows closed 
during the night, and is not of very large dimensions, 
must have experienced the heaviness and closeness of 
the air, if a person has spent the night therein. It 
is loaded with the poison exhaled from the body of 
that person. 

Other causes, besides the above mentioned, are con- 
ducive to the contamination of the atmosphere of rooms. 
Fire, gas, candles, and anything, in fact, burning, con- 
sumes oxygen and gives off carbonic acid. 

The following will serve as illustrations : 

Coal in combustion, gives out carbon, carbonic acid, 
carbonic oxide, sulphur and sulphurous compounds, as 
sulphuretted-hydrogen, ammonium sulphide, water, &c. 

Wood, carbonic acid, oxide of carbon, and water in 
large quantities. It is also estimated that one pound 
of wood would require one hundred and twenty cubic 
feet of air for complete combustion. 

Coal-gas, for lighting purposes, consumes from six 
to eight cubic feet of oxygen to the foot of gas, and 
produces about two cubic feet of carbonic acid and 
from two to five grains of sulphurous acid. More- 
over, one foot of gas will consume, in burning, about 
eight cubic feet of air. 



^4 MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 

Gas is an article of consumption which needs all the 
attention possible from the consumer, for it is seldom 
supplied by the manufacturers in such a state of purity 
as to be harmless. Impure gas will emanate carbonic 
oxide, sulphur-compounds and proportions of ammonia, 
dangerous to persons exposed to them. The great in- 
jury from gas, however, is from the imperfect combus- 
tion caused by defective burners. Whenever the gas 
flame is blue or ragged, combustion is imperfect, and 
elements of gas escape. The flame should be a wide 
one, that the air may have free access to the particles 
of carbon within it. A small, round, high flame has 
not surface enough, and the constituents of the gas 
escape in an incandescent state. The habit of partially 
turning off the gas is a mistaken notion of economy, 
saving nothing, and rendering it dangerous. The 
illuminating power of gas is due to the quantity of 
oxygen allowed to have access to the particles of carbon 
contained in it. Therefore, a flame of a small surface 
allows but little oxygen to reach the particles of car- 
bon which must escape unburnt and in a heated state. 

Oil in combustion. Half an ounce of burning oil will 
consume over three cubic feet of the oxygen of the 
air, and produce half a cubic foot of carbonic acid. 
One pound of oil requires 160 cubic feet of air for 
combustion. Candles, and any fat, would, in a state 
of combustion, consume as much air, and produce as 
much carbonic acid. All the products of burning 
carbon are heavy, and do not rise high in the atmos- 
phere. This is practically and largely demonstrated 
in manufacturing towns, as Pittsburgh, London, Man- 
chester and others, where these products are suspended 



■ AIR. 185 

in the atmosphere in such large proportion as to 
blacken the houses, furniture and garments with re- 
markable quickness. 

Under these circumstances, and, as man cannot pro- 
vide for the cooking of his food, an agreeable warm tem- 
perature in winter and light at night, without the use of 
articles of combustion, ventilation becomes imperative. 
The air of dwellings must be constantly renewed, and 
that can only be done through doors and windows, 
or such ventilators as skillful mechanics have invented 
for the purpose. Spacious rooms, with high ceilings, 
preserve the purity of the atmosphere, inasmuch as 
the exhalations of the body, and the products of com- 
bustion, would take longer to taint it with impurities, 
than they would to taint that of rooms of a smaller 
area. 

Another source of impurity of air in dwellings, and 
particularly in the expensive ones of the richer class, is 
the water-closet, the bath-tub, the stationary basin con- 
nected with the sewer. The sewer-traps, intended to 
prevent the rising of sewer gases into the rooms, do not 
accomplish that object, particularly in cities exposed to 
high and low tides ; for, during high tide the river water 
will enter the mouth of the sewers, preventing not only 
the escape of the gases, but actually forcing them back- 
wards and upwards. The amount of water in the traps 
is not sufficient to resist the pressure, and the gases 
bubble up through it, and enter the rooms through the 
apertures of the water-closet, bath-tubs and stationary 
wash-basins. To cure this defect permanently a flue 
should be connected with the sewer before it enters the 
house. The flue, like a water spout, might be made of 



jS6 mothers and daughters. 

tin, and attached to a wall of the house, or even made 
to enter a chimney flue; but it should rise above the 
roof, and fully as high as the chimney-tops. All return- 
ing sewer-gases will then find an easy exit through this 
ventilator, and the small amount of gas remaining be- 
tween the place connecting the sewer with the ventilator, 
and the trap just below the water-closet or basin would 
be prevented from entering the room by the water in the 
trap. 

The air of rooms occupied by the sick is generally viti- 
ated by the abundant exhalations from their bodies, and 
by emanations from the discharged secretions. Patholo- 
gists now declare that the rapid infection of cholera and 
yellow fever has its source in the emanations of the fecal 
matter of the patient; ozone, the great oxidizing agent 
of the air, is scarcely ever found in the atmosphere 
of sick rooms. The plausible reason is that the impuri- 
ties require so much ozone for their oxidation that none 
is left free. Whether this is true or not the fact remains 
that ozone is never found in foul atmospheres, or in 
atmospheres tainted by the exhalations of swampy 
grounds; while it is found in abundance in pure air, 
particularly of the mountains and of the sea. 

The sick room, then, should be kept well ventilated at 
all times ; but particularly so when occupied by persons 
affected with skin diseases, as scarlet fever, measles, 
chicken pox, varioloid, small pox, erysipelas; or by 
zymotic diseases, as typhoid fever; or by cholera, pul- 
monary consumption, diphtheria, etc. 

It has already been stated that the normal quantity 
of carbonic acid in the air is, as to volume, one to 
twenty-five hundred cubic feet of air. Roscoe, however, 



AIR. 187 

found that the air of a school-room occupied by 67 boys, 
(69 cubic feet of space per head), contained more than 
three parts of carbonic acid to 1,000. Weaver, in exam- 
ining a room occupied by six persons, (51 cubic feet of 
space per head), with three jets of gas burning, found 
more than five parts of carbonic acid to 1,000 feet of air; 
and Pettenkofer found that the air of a school-room 
occupied by 70 girls, (150 cubic feet of space per head), 
contained the enormous quantity of seven parts of car- 
bonic acid to 1,000 cubic feet of air. 

The disparity in the proportions above given being 
mainly due to the greater or less quantity of air allowed 
to enter into those rooms, it is readily seen that even the 
least vitiated of those atmospheres would be harmful to 
the persons breathing them; for it should not be for- 
gotten that besides the carbonic acid other impurities 
must exist, as before mentioned. 

Considering all the circumstances of impurities of the 
air, and the fact that girls remain longer and oftener 
within rooms than boys, it is reasonable to deduce the 
inference that the ventilation of houses is of peculiar 
importance to that them. 

Girls at school, and particularly at the age of puberty, 
when their organism is eminently sensitive, surfer greatly 
from confined air. It is, therefore, incumbent upon 
parents to visit the school-rooms often, and see that 
proper and adequate ventilation is secured. 

The bedrooms of girls need also particular attention, 
for girls are apt to spend much of their time in them. 
Let such rooms be not only freely ventilated, but ex- 
posed to the sun if possible. 

It is well known that persons breathing air rendered 



!88 MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 

impure by respiration, by the exhalations of the body, 
and evaporations of the skin, leading a sedentary life, or 
remaining in a constrained position several hours at a 
time become anaemic; lose their appetite, are subject to 
headache, and loss of strength. This is the first step 
towards pulmonary consumption. Girls at puberty 
require pure air; a perfect oxygenation of their blood is 
conducive to the naturalness of all their functions, and 
particularly of menstruation. 

In the following few words of Angus Smith we find 
food enough for reflection on this subject: "It must be 
remembered that the parts of which we are composed 
are continually undergoing change; the blood and the 
fluids are especially active. Let us picture to ourselves 
the amount of this activity. If we hold our breath a 
few seconds we are uncomfortable, a little more and we 
are unconscious ; if we inhale a little undiluted sulphur- 
etted hydrogen we fall down unconscious, as if struck 
by lightning; if we inhale even carbonic oxide, which 
we cannot smell, we fall down at once; by carbonic 
oxide obtained by combustion from an iron furnace, 
men have been suddenly thrown down without warning." 

We would recommend that the several hints given in 
this article be carefully read and remembered. It is to 
be regretted that a volume like this could not permit a 
greater diffusion on this subject, for it is a very vital one. 
We leave it as it is, trusting that it may be sufficient to 
awaken amongst the intelligent that desire for a thorough 
knowledge that may lead them to the study of works 
prepared especially for a more comprehensive under- 
standing of the subject. 



PART III. 



FUNCTIONAL IRREGULARITIES 



AND THEIR PREVENTIVE TREATMENT. 



From the moment a woman attains the age of 
puberty she becomes an object of solicitude to the 
physician. We shall consider her at that particular age 
of youth and beauty when the diseases that threaten her 
are those which greatly influence her health and happi- 
ness ever after. 



CHAPTER I. 

SYMPTOMS OF DISTURBANCE. 

THE functions of the generative organs of woman 
are not always established -without subjecting her 
to annoyances, nay, even to afflictions and sufferings, 
which need salutary counsel. 

Woman is subject to the process of menstruation for 
the best period of her life. During this long term, of 
thirty years of her womanhood, her health is dependent 
on the accomplishment of that function; according to 
the success or failure of that process she either flourishes 
in the enjoyment of health or languishes in pain and 
weakness. A girl is seldom the subject of special anx- 
iety until she enters the state of puberty ; like a boy, 
she runs and plays, and nature undertakes no peculiar 
mode of growth suggestive of sexual individuality. 
Puberty, although apparently sudden, is effected gradu- 
ally, and not always without accident. Its manifestation 
in menstruation may be so abnormal as to constitute a 
real malady. The mode by which this natural process 
is effected has been treated elsewhere. (See chapter on 
Puberty.) 

A girl in a perfect state of health may be taken by 
such acute and severe symptoms as to lead one to sus- 
pect indications of a dangerous malady. 

Parents, also, have been misled by the peculiar com- 
plaints into the belief that sickness was simulated, when, 



I9 2 MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 

in reality, their daughter should have been rather an 
object of sympathy. Again, ignorant attendants, believ- 
ing such an indisposition to be but an accidental attack 
of colic from indigestion or otherwise, have filled girls 
to drunkenness with alcoholic stimulants. 

Menstrual colic having been mistaken also for a 
symptom of worms, or for some other imaginary ailment, 
medicaments, unfit for the girl's condition, have been 
administered, to the detriment of her general health. 

It cannot be denied, however, that the symptoms are 
often obscure and confusing, because acute pain in the 
abdomen, accompanied by tightness and oppression, may 
suggest flatulency; irregular and heavy pain may suggest 
the presence of worms ; yet, the age of the girl, the sud- 
denness of the attack in the midst of good health, the 
periodical return of these indispositions, the regularity 
of the pulse, the natural condition of the skin, the clean- 
ness of the tongue, the absence of indigestion or of 
diarrhoea, arrd the shortness of the pain should rather 
suggest a natural preparation for the menstrual flux. 
Moreover, menstrual colics are almost always attended 
by coldness of the feet. 

These colics are generally relieved by hot foot-baths, 
application of heat over the region of the uterus : a bag 
of hot hops, or a hot corn-meal poultice. If there are 
complications, as tendency of blood to the head, neural- 
gias, pain in the chest, etc., some medical treatment 
may be required about which a physician should be 
consulted. 

The establishment of menstruation is not unfrequently 
attended by serious constitutional difficulties, as chlorosis 
(green-sickness) and hysteria. Its manifestation may 



SYMPTOMS OF DISTURBANCE. lg ^ 

also be attended by such modifications of the general 
system as will result in an aggravation, or a decided 
amelioration, of the girl's usual condition. All of the 
special maladies incidental to menstruation will be 
treated hereafter, separately. 

The appearance of the menses should be the signal 
for a girl to seek rest in a horizontal position, and for 
the avoidance of extreme cold and heat. Her beverages 
should be warm rather than iced. We have known a 
glass of ice water, taken while the body was heated by 
exercise, to suppress the menses instantly, and induce 
severe colic pains. The dress should be easy, loose 
around the chest and abdomen. Linen-wear should be 
discarded at such times, for it is too great a conductor of 
heat, allowing the body to cool too rapidly. 

Delicate and nervous persons should adopt a system 
calculated to improve the general health; as exercise in 
the open air, riding on horseback, taking trips to the 
country. If inclined to melancholy they should seek 
distraction in innocent pleasures, and in the company of 
congenial friends. 

During the period of menstruation woman should be 
an object of solicitude, for even her moral nature may, 
during that time, be exposed to changes which appear 
extraordinary to an observer. One author says that 
it is seldom that menstruation occurs without induc- 
ing some change in the usual demeanor of women. The 
majority of them are subject to weariness, vague desires, 
melancholy; they may be more irritable in their man- 
ners, more impressionable, easily frightened and dis- 
couraged; they are also more liable to take cold and 
more susceptible to the changes of the weather; in other 



1 94 MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 

words, they are the victims of many little infirmities, 
which ought to be recognized and treated with kindness, 
rather than ridicule. Those who are naturally sensitive 
should be surrounded by soothing influences, and not 
exposed to anything that exalts the imagination. The 
diet should be light, and free from rich condiments and 
stimulating spices. The bath should be warm, and 
under no circumstances should the body be immersed 
in cold water immediately before the appearance of 
menstruation or during its continuance, even though it 
had been the habit to do so at other times. The feet 
should always be kept warm and dry. 

Women of lymphatic temperament, of scanty menstru- 
ation, should be nourished generously with rare beef, 
roasted or broiled ; rich soups, particularly of peas and 
beans. A little light wine, as claret or sherry, would be 
beneficial. Such women should also dress warmly, oc- 
cupying well ventilated apartments, and make repeated 
excursions to the country. 

Mothers should be particularly attentive to instruct 
their girls at the time when the generative functions are 
likely to commence; for it has often occurred that the 
unexpected appearance of blood on the garments has 
frightened girls into serious illnesses. It is also neces- 
sary that they should be made acquainted with all the 
causes that may produce suppression or derangement. 
Ignorance has often led girls into errors which they 
would have avoided, had they known the serious conse- 
quences that would follow. Exposure to the inclemency 
of the weather, dampness, heat or cold; excessive exer- 
cise in walking, dancing, riding, playing or otherwise; 
exposing the heated body to a draught of cold air; 



SYMPTOMS OF DISTURBANCE. t g^ 

plunging the feet into cold water; a sudden emotion, as 
fright, passion, joy ; a violent pain ; a drink of ice-water, 
particularly when the body is warm; a sudden check of 
perspiration — may induce immediate suppression and all 
its concomitant painful results. 

In recapitulating the indispositions to which a young 
girl may be exposed during the period of menstruation, 
an author says : " If she is strong and robust, she may 
be tormented with vertigo, motes before her eyes, buzz- 
ing in her ears, flashes of heat in her face, nervous or 
congestive headache, sleeplessness, and even convulsions. 
Her eyes may be congested, and shed tears easily ; her 
pulse bouncing and frequent ; her temporal arteries 
throb; she may be subject to palpitation of the heart; to 
bleeding of the nose; to impeded respiration, and to 
sighing. She may be generally oppressed, or subject to 
pains and colic, and to fatigue from the least exercise. 
If she is feeble and lymphatic, she may be subject to 
congestion of the head, although her face may be pale, 
her eyes languid, her pulse weak and slow ; — also to pal- 
pitation of the heart, but not so violent as in the san- 
guine temperament. Her digestion may be feeble, yet 
she may desire indigestible substances, and sometimes 
articles entirely unfit for her condition. She may be 
subject to heaviness in the region of the stomach, to 
lassitude, to weakness even, and to the flow of leucor- 
rhcea." So that the occurrence of symptoms like these, 
at the time of life spoken of, need not be looked on as 
alarming, but should, nevertheless, be carefully watched 
and attended to. 

We have no intention of making this a medical treatise 
which may impart an intimate knowledge of causes and 



I9 6 MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 

effects, and of preventive and curative means of treating 
all diseases peculiar to women ; but a general review of 
some of these topics will be given which we trust will be 
of assistance in the preservation of health, and especially 
that of young girls, who are yet in time for precaution 
and proper care in advance. And in this, the reader will 
not be impatient at some repetitions or renewed applica- 
tions of facts and ideas already treated of. " Lifce upon 
line " is the teacher's surest road to the intelligent under- 
standing of the learners. 



CHAPTER II. 

CAUSES OF FUNCTIONAL DERANGEMENT. 

THESE causes may be divided into two classes : — 
Remote and Immediate. Under the first head let 
us consider several points. 

i. Temperaments (see chapter on " Temperaments,'') 
are often the predisposing cause of diseases of the 
menstrual organs. Women of lymphatic and nervous- 
lymphatic temperament are more prone to scanty men- 
struation, to leucorrhoea ("whites "), and hysteria, while 
the sanguine or nervous-sanguine temperaments are more 
liable to excessive and to painful menstruation. Where 
the nervous temperament predominates, the susceptibility 
to excitement and to external impression predisposes the 
individual to conditions which disturb the natural exer- 
cise of the menstrual functions. The hygiene of tem- 
peraments has already been treated under their respective 
chapters. 

2-. Diet and nourishment. In the article on food this 
subject has been fully discussed. But we may add here 
that insufficient*, excessive, or improper food, disturbing the 
equilibrium of the vital forces, deranging the stomach, 
affecting the heart and the circulation, may induce such 
irritability of the nervous system as to predispose the 
organs of generation to functional derangements. 

Insufficiency of nourishment impoverishes the blood, 
lessens the vital force, weakens the action of the heart in 



I9 8 MOTHERS AND DAUGn iERS. 

the distribution of blood ; and in the general insufficiency 
of the circulation of that all-important fluid the ovaries 
and the womb become the participants, manifesting their 
disorder in the scanty, pale, watery menstrual fluids, in 
leucorrhcea, and the relaxation of the- muscles of the 
womb and its ligaments. 

Excess of food, on the other hand, overtasks the func- 
tions of the stomach, distends its capacity as well as that 
of the intestines, and finally weakens digestion and the 
power of assimilation. Blood increases in quantity, dis- 
tending the vessels and inducing general plethora. Ex- 
cess of food then, and, particularly, if composed of highly 
seasoned dishes, overloads and irritates the system, until 
the womb and the ovaries, overcome by the plethora and 
irritability incidental to that condition, express their 
abnormal condition by painful menstruation, irritable 
uterus, etc. 

On the subject of inordinate indulgence, we prefer 
allowing a lady to speak for herself. As far back as sixty 
years ago she wrote to a young friend: "A young beauty, 
were she as fair as Hebe, and elegant as the Goddess of 
Love herself, would soon lose thes^ charms by a course of 
immoderate eating, drinking, and late hours. Some of my 
readers may start at the idea, and wonder how it can be, 
that any lady could be guilty of either immoderate eating 
or drinking. But when I speak of inordinate eating, etc., 
I do not mean feasting like a glutton, or drinking to intox- 
ication. My objection is not more against the quantity 
than the quality of the dishes which constitute the usual 
repast of women of fashion. Their breakfast not only 
sets forth tea, coffee, and chocolate, but hot bread and 
butter. The last two, when taken constantly, are hostile 



FUNCTIONAL DERANGEMENT. I99 

to health and female delicacy. The heated grease which 
is their principal ingredient deranges the stomach. After 
this meal, a long and exhausting fast not unfrequently 
succeeds, from nine or ten in the morning until six or 
seven o'clock in the evening, when dinner is served up; 
and the half famished beauty sits down to sate a keen 
appetite with spiced soups, fish, roast and boiled meats, 
game, tarts, sweetmeats, ices, fruits, &c. How must che 
constitution suffer under the digestion of this melange ! 
How does the heated complexion bear witness to the 
combustion within ! 

"The superabundance of aliment which she takes in 
at this time is not only destructive to beauty, but the 
period of such repletion is full of other dangers. Long 
fasting wastes the powers of digestion and weakens the 
spring of life. In this enfeebled state, at the hour when 
nature intends you should prepare for general repose, 
you put your stomach and animal spirits to extraordi- 
nary exertion; your vital forces are overtasked and 
overloaded, and thus every complaint that distresses 
and destroys the human frame may be engendered. I 
am fully persuaded that long fasting, late dinners, and 
the repletion then taken into the stomach, with the tight 
pressure of stiffened stays on the most susceptible part of 
the frame then called into action, and the midnight, nay, 
morning hours of lingering pleasure, are positive causes 
of disease ; and delicate proportions give place either to 
miserable leanness or shapeless fat; the once fair skin 
assumes a pallid rigidity, or a bloated redness which the 
vain possessor would still regard as the roses of health. 
To repair these ravages, comes the aid of padding to 
give shape where there is none, stays to compress into 



2oo MOTHERS AXD DAUGHTERS. 

form the chaos of flesh, and paints of all hues to rectify 
the disorder of the complexion. But useless are these 
attempts." 

We cannot but indorse this logical lady ; we grant her 
the privilege of speaking authoritatively ; to her recital 
may be added more specifically that the unrestrained in- 
dulgence, so graphically set forth by her, excites the 
nervous and sexual system and engenders especially 
maladies of the menstrual organs, which are distressing 
and debilitating in the extreme. Every inordinate stimu- 
lation is inevitably followed by reaction, which is weak- 
ness and disability. 

3. Vitiated air is another source of the general debility 
of women, and of derangements of their menstrual 
functions. The reader will find this subject treated at 
length in chapters on " Air," and ''Hygiene to preserve 
the health of women." 

4. Want of exercise and indolence stand foremost 
among the causes of uterine and ovarian derangements. 
Exercise is the harmonizer between the supply and the 
consumption, in other words, between nourishment and 
wear-and-tear. When properly conducted it gives vigor 
and strength to the body and assists all the organs in the 
performance of their functions. Deprive woman of sun, 
air, and exercise, and she becomes enervated ; the func- 
tions of her generative organs languish ; she loses her 
bright tints and colors, general debility follows, and in 
the general breaking down the menstrual organs assume 
maladies that add to the irritation and discomfort of 
the girl. 

"If a young woman," a physician says, " would be 
well-shaped and well-conditioned, and would escape ' 



FUNCTIONAL DERANGEMENT. 2 oi 

pains and the doctor, if she would have grace and 
elasticity of movement, color in her cheeks, and admir- 
able proportions in her limbs ; if she would have a fault- 
less foot and ankle, limbs of swelling proportion, the 
flesh firm, and the shape such as no sculptor could im- 
prove " — to which we add : if she would escape the 
thousand and one annoyances, pains and indispositions 
of deranged menstruation, or of irritable womb and 
ovaries — "she must avail herself of sunshine and use 
due exercise on foot. Three, four, five, or six miles a 
day is not any too much for a woman in respectable 
health. Horseback riding is an excellent auxiliary, but 
carriage riding is too lazy an exercise to do much good." 

The various modes of exercise and their relation to 
health will be found in the chapter on " Exercise" (p. 114). 

5. Mind and I?nagi?iation. The reflex action of the 
operations of the mind on the generative organs is so 
direct and immediate that over-exertion of the intel- 
lect and the prurient habits of the imagination rank pre- 
eminent among the predisposing causes of uterine and 
ovarian diseases. The ambition of parents to have a 
girl excel in mental development at an age when nature 
demands her freedom for physical growth, and the estab- 
lishment of the functions special to her sex, has sacrificed 
many a lovely maiden to an untimely grave. 

Physiologists and humanitarians have devoted much 
time and study to the education of woman, and particu- 
larly in relation to the functional disorders of her sex. 
To Dr. Edward M. Clark thanks should be tendered for 
his admirable essays on "Sex in Education " and " The 
Building of a Brain." His investigations are thorough, 
his arguments are unanswerable. We recommend all 



2 02 MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 

parents to carefully peruse those priceless volumes. 
Unwilling to rely upon his own observations alone, he 
has consulted eminent medical authorities, superintend- 
ents of schools and teachers, and it is wonderful to notice 
the unanimity of opinion on this subject among persons 
unknown to each other, and in different pursuits of life. 
The State Board of Health of Massachusetts has also 
added its valuable quota to the important information. 

From all these sources we learn that girls at school, 
submissive to strict discipline, restricted in bodily exer- 
cise by reason (social) of their sex, rendered emulous by 
competition w T ith boys in the higher studies of science or 
mathematics, become victims of overstrained mental 
powers, of over-excited nervous systems, and perish from 
the withdrawal of too much nervous force. Languor 
and exhaustion overcome them, the functions of the 
viscera and of the menstrual organs especially are im- 
paired, and a life of strength and health is changed to 
one of pain and misery. 

Among the many and illustrious correspondents of Dr. 
Clark, one says : " This baleful result becomes very 
strikingly manifested as the girls approach the. age of 
puberty. Under the abnormal conditions of the physi- 
cal system produced by this cause, not only do the more 
i emulous and studious girls suffer from the study which 
they evidently ought to intermit ; but the ordinary and 
habitual task-work necessary to keep abreast of the 
studies is far too severe a draught on many constitu- 
tions." 

Another says : " Girls suffer more than boys from at- 
tendance at school. Were, however, the habits of the 
two sexes the same in regard to out-door play and exer- 



FUNCTIONAL DERANGEMENT. 20 ^ 

cise, there would probably be no difference between the 
power of resistance in one and the other sex till the 
approach of puberty. As a girl draws near this period, 
menstruates, and becomes capable of child-bearing, the 
school discipline and work must bend to her bodily needs 
in a manner not required by boys. Her menstrual week 
must be respected. During these days her mental powers 
are easily overstrained. The depressing influence of 
confinement in the school-room, long continued standing, 
or even sitting, do her bodily harm." 

Professor Elias Loomis, of Yale College, in his report 
in which he speaks so highly of the mental qualities of 
woman, of her wonderful achievements even in the world 
of science, represents that her physical nature suffers 
under the great strain of emulation, and closes in this 
wise : " As we look upon the increasing physical deterior- 
ation of our American girls, and reflect that they are to 
become the mothers of an unborn generation, on which 
will surely fall an inheritance of defective physical or- 
ganization and consequent mental infirmities, it is time 
to sound a note of alarm, and look at the causes which 
are undermining the Republic, and search for the reme- 
dies that should be applied. ... In conclusion let 
me say, that we are a people given to experiment. There 
is nothing in our politics, economies, or religion that 
must not be put to the u experiment um cruris" This is 
true of our schools for girls. . . . The cry to our 
older colleges and time-honored universities is, Open 
your doors, that the fairer part of creation may enter 
and join in the mental tilt and tournament. God save 
the American people from such a misfortune !" 

Dr. William A. Hammond says : " Puberty being a 



204 MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 

much more complex process in girls than in boys, the 
former are more liable to disease at this time ; and this 
liability is increased by whatever tends still more to 
exhaust the nervous system, such as mental application 
and anxiety. I have repeatedly seen cases in which the 
flow of the menses had been suddenly stopped by the 
anxiety induced by the necessity of learning a school 
lesson." 

While we could cite many authorities to prove the 
baneful effects of excessive mental labor in girls, we will 
Iclose by reproducing, from Dr. Clark's work on The 
Building of a Brain, a mother's letter upon the sad fate 
of her daughter. The plain and graphic story is simple 
and full of instruction, and warmed as it is by the 
pathetic throbs of a mother's heart, it conveys an irre- 
sistible truth that should be heard by every parent : 

"At the age of fifteen Mary was a remarkably fine 
and healthy girl ; she seemed to be safely over the crit- 
ical period, and, until after that time, had never suffered 
as many girls do at the commencement of their woman- 
hood. Her thinking powers were quick and vigorous ; 
and she was the pride of her teachers and the joy of 
her parents. Unlimited mental progress was laid out 
before her, and it seemed that there were to be no 
bounds to her acquirements. 

" She had then finished a good common school educa- 
tion, at the best high school, and had entered an insti- 
tute for young ladies, of the highest character. The 
curriculum of study there was comprehensive, and it 
required the closest application of an ambitious scholar 
to succeed. 

"One hour was allowed for walking and recreation 



FUNCTIONAL DERANGEMENT. 2 o$ 

daring the day; and half of that could be spent, if the 
pupil desired to do so, in the music room. As the 
months went on, I began to notice that her complexion, 
which had been pure rose leaf, became almost transpar- 
ent, and that the fresh blood left her cheeks; still she 
did not complain, nor lose flesh, but said sometimes, 
that if she could sleep a week, she would enjoy it, and 
that it almost always happened when she was unwell 
she had the most to do, and the longest to stand. Her 
progress in her studies was wonderful; and it seems 
incredible to me now that we should have allowed her 
to devote herself to them so entirely. Her musical tal- 
ents were great, and they were under cultivation also ; 
when she was seventeen she was the first soprano singer 
in the choir of the church to which she belonged. 

"At last I began to be alarmed at the remarkable flow 
whenever she was unwell, and at the frequent recurrence 
of the periodical function. [The italics are ours.] I 
felt as if something should be done, and consulted our 
family physician as to what could be given her, and how 
this increased action could be stopped or diminished. 
He prescribed iron as a tonic, but said that we should 
do nothing more ; for that ' every woman was a law unto 
herself/ and as long as nothing more serious occurred, 
she was to be let alone. This from a man who had 
daughters himself, and eminent in the profession ! 
Never a word about rest, never a caution that she could 
overwork herself, and thus bring misery for the re- 
mainder of her life. She left school, in June of that 
year, with noble honors and aching frame ; and after 
two months' vacation and rest, which seemed to do her 
a world of good, began in September another year of 



206 MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 

unremitting, hard study. Loving and gratified parents, 
proud and expectant teachers, looked upon her as capa- 
ble of accomplishing all that had ever been done by 
faithful students, and of advancing far beyond all who 
were in the graduating class with her. Her teachers 
were as kind as any could have been. I think the fault 
was in the system that requires so many hours of study, 
no matter what the condition of the pupil may be. 

" As an instance : twenty-five questions were given 
her to be answered. She was seated at a table, without 
books, from 10 a. m. till 3 p. m., ceaselessly thinking and 
writing; and the twenty-five questions in classical liter- 
ature were faultlessly answered, and that, too, at a time 
when, had I known what I now know, she should have 
been resting on her bed. Her father, to whom the 
paper was shown for approval, wrote on the margin : ' It 
seems to me that the task imposed here was a great one 
indeed ; but it has been performed with good success/ 

*' I do not for a moment mean to find fault with her 
teachers ;. for kinder, more interested ones no pupil ever 
had ; and the delight that a teacher derives from a 
painstaking and appreciative pupil cannot be understood 
by those unused to teaching. 

"While the dear child w T as meeting our utmost 
requirements as a scholar, the foundation of her life w r as 
being sapped away. 

"In May, 1872, a little more than two weeks before 
the June commencement, she was taken with fearful 
sickness and severe chills, just after one of the hemor- 
rhages which came every three weeks regularly.- [Men- 
strual, of course.] Our doctor was called ; the first 
thing she said to him was, c Doctor, I must not be sick 



FUNCTIONAL DERANGEMENT. 



207 



now. I cannot afford the time. I must be well for 
commencement.' For four days she suffered very much, 
but quinine and all sorts of tonics brought her up ; and 
the two weeks that should have been taken to get well 
in were spent in study, study, study. All the examina- 
tions were passed successfully, even brilliantly ; and she 
was graduated with all the honors of the institution. 
Oh, how proud we were of her ! and when she came 
home, frail and weak as a wilted flower, we said that she 
should have a long rest, and every comfort that we 
could give her. All summer she remained in the high- 
lands of the Hudson ; yet, when autumn came, she was 
not as well as we thought she ought to be, though very 
much improved with regard to the monthly turns, they 
recurring at right times now. 

" In September she commenced studying again ; her 
French and music were continued, so that she might 
become still more accomplished in those branches ; and 
lectures on rhetoric and moral philosophy were attended 
also. 

" The habit of studying was so strong upon her that 
she could not give it up. Now came swelling of the 
joints and fingers, and the old trouble, all of which she 
would have kept to herself if she could have done so ; 
but I was so anxious about her that I ascertained her 
condition, went to the doctor again, and begged him to 
tell me what to do that would stop the weakening peri- 
odical disturbance, as I was persuaded that was the cause 
of her trouble. He said she had inflammatory rheuma- 
tism, and prescribed soda. But I was not to do any- 
thing for the other matter, and, against my own 
convictions, I let things take their course. Oh, if he 



2o8 MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 

had said, ' Take her home, and stop her studying.' 
Armed with such authority, I would have done it ; and 
how do we know but she might have been with us now, 
if I had done so ? But she worked on until the 25th of 
December. Then she came home, and said decidedly 
she would study no more till she was well. 

"We were rejoiced at her decision; for although we 
were anxious that her education should be complete and 
thorough, we had felt for a long time that her health was 
becoming impaired. Still we were sure she had a good 
constitution, and that would carry her through. She did 
not grow thin, but stout and pale ; and such a transparent 
pallor that, now I think of it, I wonder all who looked at 
her did not see that her blood was turning to water^ 
Her sweet and lovely soul was so uncomplaining, and 
her smile always so bright, that we never for a moment 
thought she could fade and die. 

"She brightened up somewhat for the next month, but 
still did not get well. About the last of January her 
limbs swelled so much that, in haste, I rushed to the 
doctor. Then he said her kidneys were congested, and 
that Bright's fatal disease was her malady. All that 
despairing love could do was done now. In five short 
weeks we laid her in Greenwood. Whatever was the 
form of disease from which she suffered, I am convinced 
that what she did have was brought on by excessive 
study, when she should have rested, and that it was fixed 
at the time when she got the severe chills, May, 187 1. 

" She was by no means a frail girl when she entered 
the institute. She was tall, finely formed, with a full 
broad chest, and musical organs of great compass. Her 
bust was not flat, neither was it as full as might have 



FUNCTIONAL DERANGEMENT. 209 

been. Her features were not too large. She had brown 
eyes, brown hair, a very sweet and pleasing face. With 
every indication at first of strength and good constitu- 
tion, she fell at last a victim to want of sense in parents, 
and teachers, and (shall I say?) physicians, too." 

We make no apology for transferring here this letter in 
full. Besides sympathizing with this broken-hearted 
woman, which would be sufficient reason for us to send 
abroad every word of her lament, we feel that a more 
comprehensive, true, and significant illustration of the 
carelessness in educating girls could not be given by the 
most experienced and observant hygienist. 

Body and mind being parts of a grand whole, reflect- 
ing and depending upon each other, to neglect one is to 
injure the other simultaneously ; exceptions form no 
valid argument against the requirements of this general 
law. Infringe it, and the penalty sooner or later must be 
paid. A proper equilibrium should be maintained by 
exercising the body and the mind, alternately with 
periods of rest and nourishment, necessary to the re- 
covery of vitality lost in the exercise of mental or physi- 
cal attributes. 

6. Exposure to zuet, heat, or cold. These predisposing 
causes to functional derangements of the female organs 
are set forth in the chapters on "Clothing " and " Air." 
Getting wet at the times when the periods are about to 
appear, or are actually on, is probably more of an im- 
mediate than a remote cause of menstrual derangement. 
It will be treated under the paragraph on " Immediate 
causes." 

7. Impedimenta. All kinds of mechanical pressure, as 
in the appliance of tight clothing, is another predispos- 



210 MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 

ing cause, affecting the circulation and the natural 
development of the muscular system. (See "Clothing.") 

8. Uncleanliness. "Cleanliness is next to godliness." 
What a remarkable adage ! Why is cleanliness con- 
sidered so excellent as to be reckoned next to virtue? 
Is it because uncleanliness is repulsive to the human 
sense ? That would be the negative reason The propo- 
sition is, that cleanliness, mental, as well as physical, is 
purity — purity of the mind, purity of the body. Impu- 
rities of the skin engender disease. The skin is an 
organ of absorption and secretion : it absorbs from the 
surrounding atmosphere elements of vitality ; it secretes 
effete fluids of the body. It is the safety-valve during 
excesses of temperature; it contracts when exposed to a 
very cold atmosphere, preventing the blood of the capil- 
laries from becoming suddenly chilled, and secretes 
fluid when exposed to a high temperature, inducing 
evaporation and cooling, thus preventing congestion. 
Uncleanliness of this organ is a mechanical obstruction 
to its natural function, the bad effect of which reflects 
upon the whole system. It should be kept clean and 
protected from the excesses of temperature. When 
chilled suddenly it has caused dangerous congestions, 
checked or stopped the flow of the menses ; and when it 
is kept for a long time in an unclean state, or exposed to 
sudden heat or cold, it becomes a source of chronic ail- 
ments of the chest and of the menstrual organs. (See 
"Air," "Clothing," and " Circulation.") 

8. Occupation is always a source of health, while its 
negative, Idleness, is generally a source of disease. 
Among the class in which the mental faculties are ex- 
cited" to premature activity, and the body is allowed to 



FUNCTIONAL DERANGEMENT, 2 n 

remain inactive, an unwonted irritability of the nervous 
system is the consequence. The harmonious, self-pos- 
sessed cheerfulness of the woman of physical labor com- 
pares favorably with the faulty temper, fretfulness and 
weariness of the girl of indolence. The sleeplessness, 
headache, nausea, loss of appetite, abdominal pains, back- 
ache, and general good-for-nothingness of the latter, is 
seldom found in the former. The life of the idler is 
emotional ; the life of the worker is practical. The ail- 
ings of the nervous, indolent girl are soothed only by 
romantic literature, which excites the senses that reflect 
upon her organs of generation; the active girl overcomes 
the senses by a healthy exercise of the physical, and 
finds vigor in peaceful rest. 

The occupations calculated to injure girls are such as 
demand an unwonted strain upon the abdominal muscles, 
e. g., standing too long — as shop girls at a counter — long 
practice at the sewing-machine, or sitting too long bent 
over a desk. Girls at school, keeping a sitting posture 
for six hours, wearing stays, which, on account of their 
stiffness, must press the abdomen inwardly whenever the 
body is bent forward upon itself, are liable to displace- 
ments of the womb from undue pressure. And even if 
the womb is not displaced the circulation of the abdo- 
men is interfered with, which is then manifested in the 
costiveness of the intestines, and in painful menstrua- 
tion from irritability of the ovaries. 

IMMEDIATE CAUSES. 

When any of the foregoing Remote or predisposing 
causes exist, menstrual derangement is easily brought 



2 I2 MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS, 

about, even by a slight exciting cause or immediate 
occasion. 

i. Exposure to a sudden change from heat to cold, 
getting the feet or the body wet while dressed, allowing 
the wet clothes to evaporate and dry while on the person, 
will abstract so much heat from the body as to cause a 
shock to the system that may induce immediate sup- 
pression of the menses with all its evil consequences. 
And when this is repeated, inflammation of the ovaries 
and uterus will follow, capable of putting life in imme- 
diate peril, or of exposing to such derangements of the 
menstrual organs as will consign a girl to months and 
years of suffering. 

2. E?7iotions. A sudden mental excitement from joy, 
sorrow, or fright often as suddenly checks the flow, pro- 
ducing a dangerous retention. "The menstrual organs 
are especially susceptible to the influence of excitement 
of the passions, and their disorders are oftener traceable 
to this source than to any other." The pleasures of society, 
inebriating to the young girl ; her entrance to the 
theatre of love and passion, the fascination of erotic 
literature, dramas, or scenes, are often the beginning of a 
series of evils that sap her mind and destroy her body 
Woman, by nature, more emotional than man, aggravat- 
ing her condition by the effort to conceal what she fears 
may endanger her dignity, is rendered more susceptible 
to the evil consequences that result from the excitability 
of the senses. 

The mother has evidently a serious duty to perform 
here. She should watch her daughter's associates; 
shield her from luxury and fashion ; withdraw from her 
all literature of doubtful morality ; restrain her from all 



FUNCTIONAL DERANGEMENT. 2 \$ 

things that fever the imagination, from intemperate 
wishes, from the enchantment of the senses. Unremit- 
ting vigilance, confidence and love should be her weap- 
ons. Purity of thought, tranquillity of heart and mind, 
will save her daughter from the gulf of errors to which 
she unconsciously tends, and where she will find only 
misery for her soul and destruction for her body. 

At a certain period of life, the purest heart and the 
mind most chaste are susceptible to the passion of love. 
With melancholic, dreamy, indolent natures, it is a fiery 
ordeal. Civilization has elevated the passion of the 
savage into a sentiment of affection in the refined. An 
ardent love, even in the latter, can take possession of 
the soul, agitate and dominate it. The younger and 
purer the heart, the stronger the affection which may be 
kindled into a passion by the enervating atmosphere cf 
ball-rooms, theaters, toilets and perfumes that fascinate 
the senses. Socrates said : " The wind nourishes the 
fire; habit and opportunity inflame love. ,, An inordi- 
nate love, engaging wholly the imagination, is fraught 
with danger to the celibate ; it engenders disorders that 
affect the entire human economy ; the surexcitation of 
the senses induces feverishness, restlessness, anxiety, 
sleeplessness, loss of appetite, melancholy; and nervous 
persons, tender and innocent girls, building a world of 
their own imagination, rising above the vulgar earth into 
a sentimental sphere, where daily avocations and animal 
necessities are too coarse to be observed, waste in flesh 
and droop in spirit, until maladies of a serious nature 
overtake them : hysteria, melancholy, chlorosis, neural- 
gias, etc. The organs of menstruation, in sympathy 
with the general abnormal condition of the system, suf- 



214 



MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 



fer ; and irritation, inflammation of the womb, leucor- 
rhoea, may easily be the results. 

Unrequited love, or strenuous opposition, is even 
more dangerous. It is an unequal fight ; it is a struggle 
of the imagination against fate; it is a hopeless one. 
The young girl lives in the secret chamber of her fanci- 
ful architecture alone ; she is sad and dreary. The 
roses soon leave her cheeks, she becomes pale and 
hollow-eyed, morbidly sensitive ; sighs come deep from 
her very heart, and tears flow easily ; general weakness 
finally confines her to her couch ; nothing can distract 
her mind now; nothing attracts her from solitude; she 
is alone among a thousand people ; the roundness of 
her limbs deserts her; an irritating cough makes its 
appearance, fever (hectic) follows, and the grave in the 
dim distance opens its doors for her to enter. 

Parents often fail in the manner of training girls 
whose attachments they disapprove. Fathers are too 
often harsh, and mothers whine over an imaginary 
ingratitude of the girl; how could she love anyone but 
her father and mother who have reared her, been so 
indulgent to her? etc. It is wonderful how a full stom- 
ach forgets the keen sensation of hunger! Although 
the girl is already, by the very affection of which they 
complain, disabled from thinking and judging rightly of 
the fitness of things, or of considering coolly and philo- 
sophically while passion is burning, she is expected to 
act with' reason and circumspection. Father and mother 
might better look back and see in the mirror of their 
own life the very reflection of the daughter's condition. 
Sternness and bitter reproaches are out of place now, 
and certainly unavailing, as has been proved a thousand 



FUNCTIONAL DERANGEMENT. 21 $ 

times. Travelling, change of scene, sympathy, love and 
good companionship, will do more towards calming the 
troubled spirit, and cooling the feverish excitement, than 
all the arguments or modes of coercion possible. 

The all-powerful guard against dangerous emotions, 
or reveries, is habitual occupation. Habitual is written 
understandingly, for transient occupation is not calcu- 
lated to engage the mind ; but, when habitual, it 
becomes a necessity, on account of which it is per- 
formed, even though the mind is preoccupied by 
thoughts foreign to the act. It is this habitual occupa- 
tion that so often enables man to withstand emotions 
that disappointments and misfortunes induce ; the dig- 
nity of labor, the interest in his profession or trade, the 
healthful effort to succeed, and pride in conquering 
adversity, make him powerful in the struggle for exist- 
ence. If a woman is so devoted to the duties of her 
vocation as to render her life a necessity to others, or, 
to such pursuits as engage her intellect in the accom- 
plishment of something worthy of herself and of the 
respect of her fellow-creatures, in either case, allegiance 
to her higher nature is evinced by self-forgetfulness and 
loving care for others in the one, and manifestations of 
a healthy active brain in the other, and she is not the 
victim of passion or sentimentality. 

Let every girl have an habitual occupation with which 
she is identified for success or failure, and the problem 
of life will become to her a fact of practical value, 
instead of a sentimental illusion. Let her be one of the 
helping hands of the household ; let her be identified 
with all the interests and struggles of her parents ; let 
her employment be steady and progressive, and she will 



216 MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 

not seek rest or solace from her " ennui " in the 
romances of the day, in the admiration of silly youths, 
nor in the vanity of ever-changing fashion. Conscious 
of her usefulness, she will respect herself, which is to 
have the strongest bulwark against the insidious attacks 
of imaginary evils, or excessive and unhappy emotions. 

ACCIDENTAL AND OTHER CAUSES. 

An injury, a fall, a shot, a railroad accident not in 
any way fatal, will cause a shock to the nervous system 
that may induce a sudden suppression of the menses. 
Acute diseases, as fever, hemorrhoidal hemorrhage, 
inflammation of the bowels, dysentery, pneumonia, pleu- 
risy, etc., often induce a suppression, not only during 
the acuteness of the disease, but even until the general 
system has totally recovered from the debilitating influ- 
ence. Change of climate, particularly from a high to a 
low temperature, and brought about in a quick manner ; 
travelling — crossing high mountains, and even crossing 
the sea — has induced suppression of menstruation. 
There is no doubt that the cause is found in the quick 
succession of change in the temperature or other condi- 
tions of the atmosphere. It has also happened that 
women who lived in level districts and menstruated reg- 
ularly were subject to suppression of menses while 
residing on high mountains, or at sea; and that the 
return did not occur even for several months after 
change of locality. Novelty of situation, change of 
exercise, as, going to live in a house having many steps 
to ascend and descend, or even so slight a thing as 
changing from carpeted steps to marble ones, has some- 
times caused temporary suspensions. 



FUNCTIONAL DERANGEMENT. 2 iJ 

The natural suspension of menstruation, the critical 
period that occurs at a certain time of life (at about the 
age of forty-five), is the cessation of reproduction, com- 
monly called "change of life." It is a natural process 
and should be unattended by discomfort or illness, but 
alas ! the hygienic rules so long disobeyed bring their 
result even at this stage, consequently, the process of 
cessation is hardly ever undergone without entailing 
upon woman disease and suffering. 

Another natural suppression is pregnancy. (See au- 
thor's Maternity.) 



CHAPTER III. 

AMENORRHEA. 

DELAYED MENSTRUATION. SUPPRESSION, AND RETENTION OF THE 
MENSES. CHLOROSIS. 

AMENORRHCEA means absence of tlie menses, and is 
therefore used as the generic term for the three 
disorders, sitppressed, retained, and delayed menstruation, 
although each is distinct from the others, having causes 
and effects peculiar to itself. Many of the symptoms of 
these disorders are alike, but a close and comparative 
examination will show the distinctive features of each, 
the knowledge of which is important to a proper dis- 
crimination in the selection of the means to avert them. 

DELAYED MENSTRUATION. 

By the above term might be understood a tardy ap- 
appearance of the usual flow; but in this connection 
it is used to mean the non-appearance of the menses 
at the time of life when it is reasonable to suppose they 
should be manifested. In the chapter on "Puberty," it 
has already been stated that in warm latitudes this cli- 
macteric change would occur from the tenth to the four- 
teenth year, in temperate ones from the twelfth to the 
sixteenth, and in northern regions from the fourteenth to 
the eighteenth. When these periods in the life of girls 
pass away, taking into consideration the respective lati- 
tudes, and this process of puberty is not manifested, 



A MENORRIICEA . 219 

menstruation has been unreasonably delayed, and be- 
comes, therefore, a subject of great interest and solici- 
tude. 

Menstruation may be impossible, as in the case of 
congenital malformation in which the ovaries, the womb, 
or the vagina, are absent ; or, in cases of disorganization 
from violent inflammations in which adhesions of the 
walls of the vagina, or of the mouth of the womb, have 
taken place ; in the case of imperforation of the hymen. 
These cases are rare, but they do sometimes occur. 

The causes more common for this delay are, however, 
constitutional rather than organic, and generally yield to 
hygienic and medical treatment. There are instances 
in which a tendency to a late establishment of this func- 
tion is hereditary, and others which show the delay to 
have been brought about by external influences — by in- 
appropriate modes of living, faulty education, etc. But 
it is oftener the consequence of a lymphatic tempera- 
ment, of a scrofulous and weakly constitution, in which 
vitality is below a healthy standard. The retardation of 
this natural process will, in these instances, aggravate the 
condition of the already suffering individual. 

When the non-appearance of the menses is due to the 
absence of the ovaries, or of the womb, the changes in 
the characteristics of the girl are rather masculine than 
feminine — in coarseness of features, skin, voice, etc. 
Such instances, although extremely rare, have been re- 
corded. 

When menstruation is delayed by constitutional or ac- 
cidental causes, the girl retains all her feminine attri- 
butes, but looks immature and awkward ; she may 
experience, monthly, the premonitory symptoms, and yet 



220 MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 

menstruation not appear. Pain in the back and the 
groins, general lassitude, deranged appetite, nausea, 
headache, may be present for two or three days, then 
disappear, and return at about the same date, the next 
month. 

In girls inclined to consumption this delay is very sig- 
nificant ; it indicates so little vitality, such a morbid state 
of the system, as to disable some of her most important 
organs ; it is a condition which portends mischief for the 
future, and which, when accompanied by a cough, short 
breathing, hoarseness, sore throat, or pains in the chest, 
may be taken as something for immediate and careful at- 
tention. 

HYGIENIC TREATMENT. 

The treatment should be simply hygienic, unless the 
general health is so impaired as to require a medical one. 
For all amenorrhcea, but particularly for that class in- 
duced by a scrofulous constitution or by a lymphatic 
temperament, a regimen that is calculated to give tone 
to the general system is all that is needed. The girl 
should be taken from school, from all debilitating influ- 
ences, such as bad air and poor diet, from the exciting 
and exhausting scenes of city life, and sent to the coun- 
try, to the mountains or sea-shore, to breathe pure air, 
rich in oxygen; take daily exercise and have sunshine 
and nourishing food. A season of this kind has brought 
many an enfeebled girl to a state of vigor and health 
which would before have seemed almost impossible. 

Beware of forcing-medicines; of drugs that have been 
known to perform "miracles." Do not forget that 
amenorrhoea is not in itself a disease, but the symptom of 



AMENORRHEA . 2 21 

a disease; that the administering a drug to force men- 
struation, would, in such a case, be as logical as the 
attempt to prevent the fall of a house by removing the 
bricks that crumble from it. Moreover, at that time, 
when the system labors under some unknown difficulty, 
a drug may greatly add to the complication. 

SUPPRESSION. 

Before treating of this topic it may be necessary 
to explain the pathological difference between suppression 
and rete?ition. "Suppression" is the failure of nature to 
perform the process of menstruation ; while in " retention" 
nature has performed the process, but for some reason, 
probably mechanical, the blood is not permitted to flow 
out, and is arrested within the chamber of the uterus. 
As an illustration, suppose a reservoir from which water 
is expected to flow : at a given time, you open the spigot 
and no water comes. You at once inquire, Where is the 
obstacle? You examine the reservoir and find no water 
in it; the usual stream has failed to feed it; it is a case 
of suppression. 

But if, on examining into the cause of the non- 
appearance of water, you find the reservoir is full, you 
come to the conclusion that, the stream having supplied 
it, the obstruction is in the spigot; it is a case of reten- 
tion. 

The failure of an organ to perform its functions 
should not properly be regarded as a distinct malady, 
requiring special treatment; but in view of the impor- 
tance of the function of menstruation, and the quantity 
of fluid excreted, Suppression may become the immediate 



222 MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 

cause of grave disease, and therefore requires particular 
attention. 

The causes of suppression may be divided into pre- 
disposing and accidental. The pre-disposing causes de- 
pend upon the constitution of the individual, her 
organization of the uterine organs, temperament, and 
degree of sensibility of the genital organs. When a 
pre-disposition exists, immediate causes will act as auxil- 
iaries in producing suppression, and these are: poor 
nourishment, the use of acid beverages, a sedentary life, 
too much sleep, unhealthy habitations, over-work, late 
hours, or the use of articles of a stimulating nature, as 
rich viands, aromatic substances, and alcoholic fluids; 
also, moral affections, such as sadness, grief, disappoint- 
ment, etc.; debilitating maladies anterior to the sup- 
pression, such as hemorrhages and other excessive 
evacuations; the use of astringent medicines, and the 
repression of the calls of nature. 

Among the accidental causes we find sudden exposure 
to cold and humid air, when the body is over-heated; 
partial or general immersion of the body into cold water, 
icy cold drinks, abstraction of blood, either profession- 
ally or accidentally; a wound, a blow, a burn, a fall, an 
excessive pain, a strong odor, a great mental shock, pow- 
erful drugs, an irritated stomach. 

Either of these accidental causes, occurring at a time 
when menstruation should appear, might induce sup- 
pression. The maladies following a suppression from 
accidental causes are generally acute, such as fevers, 
inflammations, etc. ; while those resulting from simple 
pre-disposing causes are likely to be gradual, chronic, 
but progressive. 



AMENORRHEA. 223 

The liability to this suppression varies in different 
women; those who are pre-disposed to it through an 
inherited idiosyncrasy, or who have incurred the habit, 
have been subjected to a suppression by the slightest 
cause, such as even the change of linen; while those 
who are not so pre-disposed have exposed themselves to 
all the above mentioned causes with impunity. 

Suppression is generally attended by the following 
symptoms : heat, heaviness or pain at the small of the 
back, extending sometimes to the end of the spine, and 
to the groins. The last vertebra may be so sore as to 
make it impossible to retain a sitting posture. Not 
unfrequently the pains of the abdomen are short and 
shooting, attended by swelling and tightness; the breasts 
also, sympathetically affected, become tumified and pain- 
ful, and yield a white fluid, often mistaken for milk. 
When the suppression is long continued, the whole sys- 
tem responds to the unnatural condition; the appetite is 
lost, or replaced by a desire to eat strange things; the 
irritable stomach rejects food, or is troubled by nausea; 
the heart, oppressed, is subject to palpitations; the head 
is full and heavy, and oftentimes excruciatingly painful ; 
the ears ring with strange sounds; the intestines, in their 
turn, are irritated, producing diarrhoea or dysentery ; 
the bladder, the next neighbor to the womb, shares in 
the general derangement, causing frequent and difficult 
urinations. 

This condition finally induces general lassitude, sad- 
ness or malaise. Women thus affected give external 
evidence of their condition by their faces becoming pale 
and puffed, their flesh flabby, their movements languid; 
they yield easily to moral influences, and become morose 



224 



MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 



or melancholy. This debilitated and depraved condi- 
tion makes them prone to neuralgia, hysteria, hypo- 
chondria, glandular enlargements, eruptions of the skin, 
etc. ; to dropsical effusions, partial or general, manifested 
in the eye-lids, in the feet, in the pleura — the membrane 
around the lungs, in the pericardium around the heart, 
or in the entire skin surrounding the body. 

The severest symptoms are more liable to occur when 
the suppression is sudden, and in subjects of lymphatic 
temperament; also in those of nervous and sanguine 
temperament, who have been subject to profuse men- 
strual discharge before the accidental suppression. 

The indispositions that follow suppressions generally 
diminish in intensity, or entirely disappear, during the 
intervals between the menstruating periods, but are 
prone to increase during the time that menstruation 
should appear. 

The effect of suppression depends upon its causes 
and duration. When induced by slight causes their 
removal is sufficient for the restoration of normal men- 
struation. Again, it sometimes happens that the woman's 
system adapts itself to a continued suppression without 
incurring serious consequences. 

Yet the consequences are generally serious, and if 
continued beyond what might be reasonably expected 
from an accidental cause, medical counsel should be 
secured without delay. 

Nature, oppressed by the retention of a fluid that 
should be monthly eliminated by the womb, attempts 
other means to obtain relief; thus hemorrhages of the 
nose, of the lungs, of the hemorrhoidal veins, have peri- 
odically occurred in place of the more natural process of 



AMENORRHEA . 2 2Z 

menstruation; such hemorrhages are called 'Vicari- 
ous." 

Menstruation is suspended during pregnancy of course. 
(See author's Maternity.) The exceptions to this rule 
are so few and rare as to need no special mention here. 

SELF EXAMINATION. 

One cannot look at the array of symptoms mentioned 
to describe this disease without being appalled at the 
possible consequences of suppressed menstruation. We 
trust that the description will not discourage the reader 
from examining for herself the condition in which she 
may be; on the contrary, we hope that her interest has 
been awakened in a subject the knowledge of which may 
give her health, and protect her from disease. She 
should commence her inquiry by contrasting her former 
condition with the present one, and ask: "Am I of a 
scrofulous or lymphatic temperament? was my usual 
condition a feeble, languid, or torpid one? was my 
appetite good, and my digestion normal ? was my men- 
struation regular and sufficient? have I had any serious 
illness of the stomach, lungs, bowels, or spine? has any- 
thing ever occurred to cause me poignant grief or 
mental shock? is my disease traceable to any moral or 
physical affection ?" Supposing her to be able to answer 
No, to these queries, the question still arises : What 
suppressed the menses? Did they stop suddenly; or 
fail to come when expected? Allowing an affirmative 
answer to either of the last, her endeavor should then 
be to discover the cause. Has she had a fright? Is 
she nursing a grief or disappointment, has she exposed 
herself to wet, or to sudden cold, has she over-worked, 



226 MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 

etc.? (See "Immediate causes.") Satisfied with her 
own answers to these, then the question should arise in 
her mind : What will be the probable result of this sup- 
pression ? The answer will depend upon whether the 
suppression is accidental or habitual. If accidental, 
menstruation ma}' return when due without any ill con- 
sequence; if habitual, the consequence may be very 
serious. 

Amenorrhcea is not necessarily a grave malady, unless 
complicated with great constitutional disturbance, or 
dependent upon some remote disease; isolated and 
recent, it may prove but a delay. Having taken all the 
above into consideration, having made a satisfactory 
examination of her own condition and determined the 
causes of the suppression, the patient may be able to 
decide whether it is in her power to obviate the causes 
and remedy the evil, or whether she should give herself 
up to the better judgment of a medical counselor. 

HYGIENIC TREATMENT. 

The prescription of drugs should be left to the med- 
ical attendant, who alone is capable of prescribing for 
each individual case, every one having a decided indi- 
viduality. Especial caution must be here given against 
the use of menstrual nostrums loudly proclaimed to "do 
the business " at short notice without failure. It is 
particularly against newspaper advertisements of miracu- 
lous cures that we warn the patient. Respectable 
physicians never advertise their treatment or themselves. 
The quack's circular may describe your case precisely, 
because such cases are common and well described in 
books ; that description which has attracted your atten- 



AMENORRHEA. 227 

tion, which has been taken from estimable authors, is 
the trap into which he desires you to fall. If you need 
medicine, apply to a physician well known not only fof 
skill but integrity. Again, you should be cautioned 
against any iC panacea " of old women; however honor- 
able their intention, they are not able to prescribe for 
your case. Forcing-medicines may prove most disas- 
trous ; in forcing the womb to menstruate, inflammations, 
already existing, may be so aggravated as to put life in 
danger. 

A properly regulated regimen will not only prevent 
amenorrhcea, but in many instances cure it. 

Simple cases of suppression, originally depending 
upon debility and a lymphatic temperament, and occa- 
sioned by poor nourishment, ill-ventilated and damp 
apartments, should be treated with a generous diet of 
roasted or broiled meats, wines, etc.; the patient should 
practice dry frictions over the body, dress warmly, and 
take moderate exerercise. A trip to the mountains or 
to the sea-shore, a few rides on horseback, a wholesome 
fortifying diet, have often been enough to bring roses to 
the pallid cheeks of girls. In another case, if the sub- 
ject is of a strong sanguine temperament, nourishment 
should be of the lightest kind, beverages of water, and 
rest imperative. 

It should be remembered that the tendency of men- 
struation is to reappear; that in due time nature makes 
the effort to re-establish it ; it is then, therefore, that the 
means to assist it should be employed, that foot and hip- 
baths of hot water are particularly efficient. 

Suppression induced by exposure to cold or damp- 
ness, or by checked perspiration, should be treated with 



228 MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 

warm drinks while in bed, for the purpose of restoring 
the action of the skin. When caused by mental im- 
pressions, as anger, grief, fright, jealousy, etc., a general 
warm bath will quiet the nervous system, and establish 
harmony between the relative functions of the mind and 
the bodily organs. 

If the suppression is accompanied by an excess of 
pain, warm hip-baths, local application of hop poultices, 
hot, will be very useful. When suppression resists all 
treatment, a change of climate, a long journey by sea, 
may prove efficacious. 

When the condition is dependent upon moral causes, 
great sagacity will be required on the part of the parents 
and the medical attendant, for as long as that state exists 
all the drugs of the pharmacy will.be used in vain; but 
journeys, change of scene or surroundings, pleasurable 
distractions will be the only means of restoring health to 
the patient. 

The use of spring-waters (particularly the ferruginous) 
and sea-baths may, however, prove of great benefit to 
persons of lymphatic temperament. 

In cases where mental exaltation in affairs of love is 
the cause of the suppression, marriage has proved per- 
manently curative. 

Such is the treatment in all simple cases; when com- 
plications with remote maladies of a serious nature exist, 
the case should be referred to a physician. 

RETENTION. 

We come now to consider cases of Retention. 
The pathological difference between retention and sup- 
pression has been described above. The ovaries and 



A MENORRHCEA . 229 

the uterus have performed their functions, but the blood 
exuded within the chamber of the womb finds no exit. 
This is a dangerous and painful malady, and if no means 
are ready at hand to relieve the womb of the blood col- 
lected therein, even life may be put in danger. 

The causes that may induce such retention are various 
and peculiar; they may be organic, as, when the mouth 
of the womb is closed by adhesions, and when the* 
hymen is imperforated ; instances are on record where 
the vagina was even found entirely absent. Such cases 
of adhesion however, are exceedingly rare, but may 
be induced by repeated inflammation of those organs, 
and by the treatment with caustics. When the 
closure is complete, there can be no flow whatever; 
but when incomplete, the flow is scanty, slow, diffi- 
cult and painful. 

Retention however, is generally induced by spas- 
modic closure of the womb, which yields easily to 
proper treatment. When the entire menstrual fluid is 
retained, the womb becomes distended and very painful; 
the distension increases every month, until, if not 
removed, it may burst the womb itself. Flexions of 
the womb, (that is, the womb bending upon itself,) the 
pressure of a polypus, or of any tumor, may induce 
complete or partial retention. 

The symptoms of retention are like those of pain- 
ful menstruation, but greatly intensified; the pains in 
the lower part of the abdomen are intensely severe 
and acute; they are of a forcing, bearing-down nature, 
pressing towards the bladder, causing frequent and 
difficult urinations. Under this great stress the nervous 



230 MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 

system becomes excited, producing chills, headache, 
hysteria, and sometimes even convulsions. 

It is evident that the nature of retention is so grave, 
that none but a skillful physician is qualified to treat 
it. When retention is the consequence of spasmodic 
closure of the neck of the womb, and the patient has 
been so informed by her physician, very hot hip-baths, 
or a drink of warm water, such as would produce 
vomiting, will relax the muscular fibers, and give 
prompt relief to the patient. 

It is scarcely needful to say more regarding this 
subject, as every case requires the most thorough in- 
vestigation, and the most careful treatment of a phy- 
sician. 

chlorosis (" Green Sickness.' 1 ) 

Chlorosis is not properly a disease of the generative 
organs of woman, and would have no place in this 
volume were it not that amenorrhcea is invariably con- 
nected with it. It is a disorder characterized by intense 
paleness of the skin, lips, and the lining membrane of 
the eye-lids; it is a paleness having a greenish hue, 
(from which the disease takes its name) ; at times the 
color is yellow, when it is often mistaken for jaundice. 
The noticeable and peculiar paleness of the lips and of 
the membrane over the eye-ball are almost infallible evi- 
dence of chlorosis. 

Pathologically, the disease is distinguished by a lack 
of red globules in the blood, which seems as if turned to 
water; and the transfusion of that water through the 
veins into the cellular tissue causes dropsy of the- face, 
of the feet, or of the whole body; it is this dropsica 1 . 



A MEXORRHCEA . 231 

condition that gives the "puffy" appearance. This dis- 
ease, when continued, gradually weakens the patient, 
whose system under the general anaemia becomes de- 
ranged. The appetite is lost or perverted to a desire 
for strange things, such as slate-pencils, chalk, dirt, salt, 
charcoal, pepper, vinegar, pickles, lemon juice, etc.; then 
a sensation of weight oppresses the stomach, digestion is 
retarded, giving rise to evolution and eructation of gas ; 
the respiration becomes labored, and palpitations of the 
heart are induced by the slightest exercise or mental 
excitement. This low condition predisposes the patient 
to neuralgia, which may affect the head, the neck, the 
eyes, the back, or any part of the body. 

Chlorosis consists, essentially, of a watery state of the 
blood ; the red globules being wanting, death-like pallor 
and weakness ensue, the menstrual and fecal discharges 
are suppressed. It is useless to discuss here the various 
theories advanced by pathologists regarding the exact 
nature of this disease ; they disagree on this point, but 
concur that the almost constant absence of menstruation 
during the course of the disease is not the cause, but the 
consequence. 

Chlorosis generally occurs at puberty, just before men- 
struating, although both married women and those who 
have menstruated have been affected by it. 

A young girl in excellent health and color suddenly 
loses the roses of her cheeks, becomes intensely pale, 
loses her vitality, is tormented by notions and apprehen- 
sions; her cherry lips and the white of her eyes become 
greenish white. Soon her stomach shows irritability, 
refuses food or tolerates it with difficulty. Daily she 
grows weaker and more nervous, sleeps little and has 



232 MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 

frightful dreams. Now and then she complains of neu- 
ralgic pains in various parts of the body; she is moody, 
sensitive, hysterical. Spasms, convulsions, St. Vitus's 
Dance, epilepsy, may overtake her; the menses are sup- 
pressed, but she will probably be troubled with bleeding 
from the nose, of watery blood. Her heart jumps at the 
slightest cause; her breathing is oppressed. She has 
chlorosis. 

This disease is generally curable, particularly when it 
does not occur in women of vitiated constitutions, and 
who have not been exposed for a considerable time to 
deprivation of healthy diet and pure, dry air. The 
danger of this malady lies in the organic diseases that 
may follow. Some of which are : valvular disease of 
the heart, dropsy, paralysis, hoemorrhages, consumption. 
The appearance or reappearance of the menses is the 
most reliable sign of the return of strength and health, 
and of a complete recovery. 

The causes that predispose to this affection are 
strong mental emotions, fright, love, sexual excitement, 
masturbation, insufficiency or inferiority of food ; resi- 
dence in damp, close, unlighted, unventilated localities. 

HYGIENIC TREATMENT. 

A preventive regimen requires nutritious diet. If the 
girl has no desire for fresh meats she may relish salted 
or smoked beef and fish, codfish, mackerel, herring, 
oysters, clams, crabs, dried or smoked beef or ham. 
Brown, or rye bread, and good broths are excellent, and 
often acceptable ; indeed, the stomach needs to be in- 
dulged to the last degree. Claret wine, ferruginous 
waters, are beneficial ; but, above all, mountain air, sea 



AMENORRHEA. 233 

shore, sea-journeys, open-air exercise, dry and well- 
ventilated apartments, will be more conducive to the 
restoration of her health than anything else. 



CHAPTER IV. 

MENORRHAGIA (EXCESSIVE MENSTRUATION). 

THIS consists in either too profuse, too prolonged, or 
too frequent menstruation. 

The quantity of blood discharged at one menstrual 
crisis varies in different women, and sometimes in the 
same subject ; yet every woman has a knowledge of her 
average of flow, either as regards quantity or duration. 
(See Chapter XT., Part I., on " Philosophy and Physiol- 
ogy of •Menstruation.") When she discharges more in 
the same length of time ; when her periodical flow is 
prolonged beyond her usual time ; when it recurs oftener 
than once a month, and the amount passed away in the 
month's cycle is beyond the usual quantity expected 
from the individual, the woman is said to be afflicted 
with Menorrhagia. 

Naturally woman menstruates once every four weeks, 
allowing a few exceptions who menstruate oftener with- 
out ill consequences ; the quantity lost each time is 
estimated to be about six ounces; the usual duration 
four or five days. Suppose, then, a girl to menstruate 
twice a month, each time a regular quantity ; another, to 
menstruate in a regular manner as to periodicity and 
length of time, but secreting a much larger quantity; 
another, flowing not immoderately but continuously for 
ten or twelve days : it becomes evident that in each and 
every such case the loss of blood is in excess of the 



MENORRHAGIA. 2 35 

usual habit, requiring attention and treatment lest the 
general health become seriously affected from the un- 
wonted drain. 

In menorrhagia the quantity must be an unusual one 
for the person complaining, as some young women may 
discharge ten or twelve ounces regularly and, yet be in a 
normal condition ; while in others a discharge of eight 
or ten ounces would be considered unusually superabun- 
dant, and therefore menorrhagic. The normal individ- 
ual quantity depends upon individual constitution and 
temperament, as already explained in the chapter on the 
" Physiology of Menstruation." There are women also 
who naturally menstruate twice a month, or once in 
three weeks, but in quantities that, if added together, 
do not yield a total in excess of what is natural and 
usual ; hence not menorrhagic. 

An inordinate flow occurs generally in women of san- 
guine temperament, whose hearts' impulse is strong and 
whose circulation is free. This temperament predisposes 
to determination of blood, and it is therefore reasonable 
to suppose that the womb, under the seasonable stimu- 
lus, may receive and discharge an abundant quantity of 
menstrual fluid. It is seldom, however, that an excessive 
flow occurs, unless a debilitating cause exists. The 
sanguine temperament, exuberant in action, may over- 
reach its limits of vital powers, and terminate in de- 
bility. 

Again, where the passions are strong and exposed to 
over-excitation, reflex action might determine blood to 
the generative organs and induce congestions that nature 
relieves by a profuse menstruation. 

Luxury, indolence and indulgence enervate the human 



236 MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 

system, however strong; and, therefore, it not seldom 
happens that a person of sanguine temperament is com- 
paratively weaker than another who manifests less 
exuberance of constitutional vitality. Some morbid 
stimulus has exhausted the vital powers, destroyed the 
tone of tissues, induced anaemia, and relaxed the walls 
of the womb, on account of which the blood flows with- 
out restraint. Therefore, although a woman of sanguine 
temperament may be expected to discharge a larger 
quantity of menstrual fluid than one of a lymphatic 
temperament, yet, when the quantity is increased much 
beyond the habitual flow, a cause for the abnormal 
condition must exist which should be investigated and 
removed. 

Menorrhagia is common also among women of nerv- 
ous, irritable temper; in those who are corpulent and 
of indolent habits, and those who live in hot climates or 
who occupy rooms having a high temperature ; it is also 
an hereditary predisposition ; and, whatever its source, 
it is generally aggravated during the summer season. 

Beside the constitutional tendency, there are accidental 
causes which may induce immoderate menstruation, among 
which are the following : exposure to excessive heat 
or cold ; violent exercise, particularly on horseback and 
over rough roads ; abuse of medicines intended to force 
menstruation ; abuse of stimulants and of the pleasures 
of the table; a fall; lifting weights ; mental excitement, 
such as fright, anger, jealousy, love, ambition, etc. 

Reliable authorities insist that menorrhagia is invari- 
ably due to irritation and inflammation of the womb or 
ovaries ; that the disease is local and not constitutional ; 
that the morbid sensitiveness, the weakness, the moral 



MENORRHA GIA . 237 

and mental disturbances present in this disease are not 
causes, but effects of the excessive loss of vital fluid 
and of the uterine irritation communicated by reflex 
action. Others, quite as reliable, honestly differ from 
the above, and assert that in many instances this malady 
is induced, not by local, but by constitutional causes. 
We are of the opinion of the latter, and advise the 
patient to consult the medical man, who, upon due in- 
vestigation, will determine the causes affecting the special 
case brought to his notice. 

Hemorrhage should not be confounded with Menorrha- 
gia, although the latter implies a hemorrhage, both mean- 
ing a flow of blood : but menorrhagia is associated with 
menstruation, while simple hemorrhage is not. In other 
words, menorrhagia is either a too profuse, too pro- 
longed, or too rapid recurrence of the menstrual flow ; 
while hemorrhage may occur at any time from the womb, 
the lungs, etc., and from accidental causes. A hem- 
orrhage of the womb may be a consequence of a blow, 
the application of a sharp instrument, pregnancy, labor, 
or abortion ; also the presence in the womb of a tumor 
or some destructive disease as ulceration or cancer ; it 
obeys no law of periodicity, but occurs at irregular peri- 
ods and continues as long as the local lesion remains 
unchecked by active treatment ; and while it may be 
slight and harmless, it may also be profuse and 
immediately dangerous. Menorrhagia may, in being 
prolonged and repeated, slowly deplete a person of 
blood, and thus withdraw so much of the vital force 
as to put life in peril ; but the process will be gradual, 
and afford time for repair, for treatment and for protec- 
tion against collapse. 



23 8 MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 

Menorrhagia may be active or passive, even nervous or 
spasmodic. The active kind results from an excess, the 
passive from a deficiency, of vitality. In the first, 
plethora is made apparent by the animated face, the 
strong, full pulse, the highly colored cheeks, the brilliant 
eyes ; also by a liability to congestive headaches, feelings 
of general heat, rush of blood to the head, heaviness at 
the back of the stomach, heat and itching of the 
vagina. The second is marked by the lymphatic appear- 
ance and by paleness, anaemia, puniness, indigestion, want 
of appetite, cravings for strange things, general debility, 
slow and weak pulse. The flow of. the former will be of 
clear red blood, as if coming from a cut, while that of 
the latter is of lightly colored, watery blood. 

In a plethoric woman, an active flow may prove 
beneficial, and remove all the unpleasant feelings she 
complained of before its occurence ; but in a lym- 
phatic, debilitated woman, even a passive flow will 
augment her weakness, and if continued induce faint- 
ing, dropsy, obscuration of vision, buzzing in the ears, 
dizziness, palpitation of the heart, discoloration of the 
skin, hysteria and possibly convulsions. 

The above should be sufficient to warn women that 
menorrhagia may be so complicated and grave as to 
require the counsel of the most skillful physician. A 
general and local examination should be made, so that 
no false assurance should lead the patient into fatal 
indifference, or add a useless anxiety to the mental 
burden already oppressing her. 

HYGIENIC TREATMENT. 

The hygienic treatment will depend upon constitu- 



. MEXORRHAGIA. ■ 239 

tion and temperament. In sanguine temperaments 
excited by mental causes, quiet, rest, light and un- 
6timulating food should be enjoined; the moral dis- 
turbances removed. Entire change from the locality, 
the scenes and the companionship that excited the 
mind and the senses will prove highly beneficial. If 
mental labor, in the transaction of business, in the at- 
tainment of professional or literary success, in study, 
in gratifying ambition or pride, has been the cause, 
a complete remission or intermission of those pursuits 
will be necessary. The mind must rest adequately to 
its labor, else a nervous exhaustion will follow, that 
will lower the vital powers of every organ of the 
body. A vegetable diet and acidulated beverages, 
lessening the red globules of the blood and diminish- 
ing the over-action of the heart, will be found par- 
ticularly useful in plethoric persons. 

When menorrhagia is induced by anaemia, debility, 
constitutional or otherwise, or in consequence of malarial 
fevers or of diseases of long standing, the regimen 
recommended in amenorrhea will be applicable to it. 
Moderately cold hip or entire baths are generally 
invigorating to the feeble, particularly if quickly taken 
and followed by brisk frictions. They are useful also 
to women of sanguine temperament, who may remain 
longer in the cold bath, thus permitting abstraction of 
heat. In either case, care should be taken not to 
plunge into a cold bath immediately before, during, or 
immediately after menstruation. 

Menorrhagia depending upon inflammatory or structu- 
ral diseases of the womb requires such positive and 
specific treatment as would be out of place in a volume 



2 4 o MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS, 

of this character, and it is therefore properly referred 
to the care of the physician, who should be made ac- 
quainted with every detail connected with the case to 
enable him to prescribe with intelligence and skill. 



CHAPTER V. 

DYSMENORRHEA (PAINFUL MENSTRUATION). 

THE suffering connected with this disorder is of the 
most intense and acute character; and reflecting 
that a girl thus affected is monthly condemned to its 
recurrence, each time prostrating her on a bed of agony, 
the hardest heart would deplore her destiny. 

But, probably, only the sufferer herself can realize that 
three or four days of writhing, wringing, cutting abdom- 
inal pains, returning once a month, is a penalty too 
severe, too cruel to be inflicted on a human being were 
it even intended as a retribution for crime ; and when 
the torture is inflicted on an innocent girl, heart and 
mind rebel against the castigation. Yet thousands of 
unmarried women periodically bear this torture, smiling 
during the short intervals of ease that come between the 
spasms that seem to rend them. There is a pain-endur- 
ing capacity in woman that certainly man knows not of; 
in the throes of labor she smiles in anticipation of glad- 
ness, in the racking pains of dysmenorrhcea she only 
. prays for the hour of relief. It is that struggle between 
the moral and the physical from which woman comes 
out a heroine. 

But it is on this very account that our best efforts and 
greatest sympathy should be engaged in protecting and 
relieving her from such terrible fate. It is to be regret- 
ted that often the most energetic means have failed to 



242 



MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS 



relieve ; this failure is, however, generally due to a mis- 
conception of the origin and cause of the difficulty, and 
must be incurred whenever the trouble is treated as an 
independent difficulty while it is but a symptom of a 
deeper and remote disease. 

Dysmenorrhoea is due very generally to inflammation 
or congestion of the ovaries or womb, yet it may be of 
neuralgic or rheumatic origin, or due to nervous irrita- 
bility of the womb, the spasmodic strictures of its mouth 
interfering with a free flow of the menstrual fluid, caus- 
ing partial retention and giving time to the blood to 
coagulate, each coagulation having to be thrust out by 
the contractile force of th womb. Menstruation sud- 
denly suppressed by any accidental cause may become 
very painful and assume the form of dysmenorrhoea. 
During a high state of inflammation plastic lymph is 
sometimes exuded in the womb, organizing a pseudo- 
membrane like that of diphtheria or croup in the throat, 
passing off entire -or in shreds, with the keenest pain. 
This has been styled " membranous dysmenorrhoea. " 

Malposition or flexion of the womb, tumors, or any 
mechanical obstruction may render menstruation diffi- 
cult and painful. 

Women of sanguine and nervous temperament are 
predisposed to dysmenorrhoea, particularly when they in- 
dulge in indolence, rich food, ardent spirits, wines, the 
pleasures of the senses ; or are exposed to mental im- 
pressions of an exciting character. 

This disease affects especially unmarried women, and 
marriage has often cured the disorder. 

The direct or accidental causes are manifold, for almost 
any shock to the system may induce dysmenorrhoea in 



D YSMENORRHCEA. 



243 



subjects predisposed to it; but moral disturbances, sud- 
den transitions from heat to cold, or vice versa, any 
morbid affection of other organs, are pre-eminent causes 
of dysmenorrhcea. 

The symptoms are of a very violent character; they 
generally commence three or four days before menstrua- 
tion, increasing in intensity until the flux is fairly estab- 
lished ; the erect posture aggravates them. They are 
as follows : pain in the back extending to the groins, 
and in the abdomen over the whole region of the 
womb as high as the navel r sometimes radiating 
down to the thighs. The pains gradually assume the 
spasmodic and colicky form, until they become un- 
bearable ; the blood flows by drops and sometimes 
in little clots, or is accompanied by membranous 
shreds. In highly nervous temperaments the ex- 
citement is so great as to induce hysteria and even 
convulsions. Under this excitability of the generative 
organs the breasts swell and become painful; gases are 
evolved in the abdomen, and a sensation of heat is felt 
in the vagina and the soft parts. The bladder sympa- 
thizes and urine is passed often, but with difficulty and a 
sensation of scalding. These symptoms may be pre- 
monitory and -disappear as quickly as the flux appears ; 
but more often, if the flow is not free, they increase for 
twenty or thirty hours, and may not end till the end 
of the discharge. The flow is generally scanty, but may 
be profuse ; in the latter case, however, intermissions of 
suppression occur, during which the pains return with 
the usual severity ; this is especially the case in women 
of highly nervous organization, susceptible to every im- 
pression. Generally a free flow relieves the pains as if 



244 



MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 



by magic. In very young girls the womb may not be 
sufficiently developed, in which case the disorder cannot 
be expected to be cured until that organ is grown to 
adequate proportions. The natural cavity of the womb 
is very small, not retaining more than fifteen or twenty 
drops of the fluid, so that it may be easily comprehended 
that a very small quantity of blood may cause such dis- 
tention as to induce excruciating pain. 

When dysmenorrhcea recurs for many months and 
becomes habitual it may gradually induce such disor- 
ganizations of the womb as to cause it to become per- 
manently diseased, unless properly treated. 

Authors have differed regarding the causes of dysme- 
norrhcea ; we will quote one, who says : " Ordinarily, 
the primary and true seat of the morbid process, known 
as painful menstruation, is to be sought for in the highly 
irritated, congested, or inflamed condition of one or 
both ovaries, which condition is induced under a great 
variety of circumstances : from application of cold, from 
falls upon the knees or sacrum, from horseback riding, 
dancing, or long, fatiguing walks just previous to, during 
or immediately after, the menstrual flow, from great 
muscular effort, as the lifting of heavy weights, from 
tight dresses, corsets, and the various bands and strings 
around the waist, preventing a free returning of the 
blood from the pelvis ; from retention or suppression of 
the catamenia [menses], from gouty or rheumatic habit, 
from solitary practices, etc. ; " to which we add : from 
constipation, from mental excitement (particularly of the 
affections), from anger, fear, disappointment. 

To give a clearer view of this trouble in all its phases 
we will divide it into classes, and give the principal 



D YSMENORRHCEA. 245 

characteristic of each ; we hope thus to enable the un- 
professional reader to discern its several forms. 

Simple Dysmenorrhea. This is an uncomplicated form 
of the disorder, called "nervous " or "neuralgic." It is 
due to the morbid sensitiveness of the uterus or ovaries 
and aggravated by mental excitement, exposure to heat or 
cold, over-fatigue, rheumatism, overloading the stomach, 
constipation, etc. Nervous-sanguine temperaments, girls 
subject to neuralgic or rheumatic affections, are more 
liable to it. The distinctive symptoms are found in the 
great sensitiveness of the uterine regions; the girl can- 
not be touched by the hand without an increase of pain, 
and even the weight of her clothing seems unbearable. 
At the approach of the menstrual period, sensations 
of fullness, weight and bearing down are felt at the 
vulva, and pains supervene which radiate to the bladder, 
the rectum and down the thighs. As the flow com- 
mences the pains become more intense and spasmodic, 
often amounting to actual cramps, and simulating labor 
pains. Women have been heard to exclaim, " I would 
rather give birth to a child than be subject monthly to 
these pains." Usually, after twelve or fifteen hours, 
when menstruation becomes fully established, the pains 
abate, passing gradually away, to the great relief of the 
patient; but it does often occur that they last during the 
whole course of menstruation. During the intervals, 
however, she is perfectly well, the parts not unnaturally 
sensitive, which is proof that there is no local inflam- 
mation. The suddenness of the attack, its severity and 
paroxysmal character, its recurrence month after month 
without affecting the general health, should be accepted 



246 MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 

as evidences that the case is one of irritability of the 
uterus, and of a neuralgic form. 

Accidental Dysmenorrhea. This is also one of the 
simplest forms that may occur occasionally from hygienic 
errors on the part of the woman immediately previous 
to, or during, menstruation. Overfatigue, excitement, 
exposure to cold may at such a time induce painful 
menstruation, which does itot recur at the following 
period. 

Congestive dysmenorrhea is generally distinguished 
from the others by the clots which pass during men- 
struation. Congestion is a rush of blood to the womb, 
and may be compared to the rush of blood to the 
head causing apoplexy. The veins and arteries are 
engorged, causing all the pains of dysmenorrhcea with 
all the concomitant nervous symptoms which are very 
severe, but generally of short duration. Vomiting, 
convulsions, hysteria, may occur during the stage of 
congestion ; but as soon as the blood flows sufficiently 
to relieve the overdistended vessels the symptoms 
disappear, and the patient is well. 

Inflammatory Dysmenorrhcea. This is not a consti- 
tutional dysmenorrhcea, but the result of an in- 
flammation of the womb and ovaries. It does not 
commence at puberty, like the constitutional, but oc- 
curs at any time in married, or unmarried women, 
when that morbid condition of the womb or ovaries 
exists. In this form the sufferings continue during the 
whole period of menstruation, leaving the region 
tender even after it. The whole system sympathizes 
with the local inflammation, and languor and anaemia 
follow, giving a general and continued evidence of 



DYSMENORRHEA. 247 

physical deterioration. It is in this form of dys- 
menorrhcea that the pseudo-membrane is formed, passing 
out of the womb in shreds with excruciating pains. 
There may be inflammatory dysmenorrhcea without 
the formation of this membrane, but the presence of 
the membrane is always proof of inflammation. In- 
flammatory dysmenorrhcea is generally attended by fever. 

Mechanical or physical dysmenorrhea. This depends 
upon organic imperfection of the uterine neck, such 
as constriction; deformities of structure, or mal- 
position of the womb; thickening of the lining, mem- 
brane induced by previous and repeated inflammations; 
adhesions; tumors; and finally, closure of the vagina 
or imperforation of the hymen. The symptoms of 
this form do not differ in any high degree from the 
others, and it is therefore difficult to determine the 
form except by the close examination of the medical 
man. A tumor, if of any size, may be detected by 
the enlargement of the abdomen that does not sub- 
side after menstruation. The malposition of the womb 
may be suspected, if pain in the back, sensation of 
bearing down, desire to pass water often, and passing 
it with difficulty, or constant desire to evacuate the 
rectum without doing so, or when doing so passing a 
small, hard, compressed stool, continue to occur during 
the intervals between the menstruating periods. And 
the entire closure from imperforation of the hymen, or 
adhesions of the vagina or womb, may be prognosti- 
cated, if all the violent pains of periodical dysmenor- 
rhcea occur, without any discharge of menstrual fluid. 

Authors give many varieties of dysmenorrhcea and 
do not always agree as to its pathology, or in the 



248 MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 

classification ; but the above may be sufficient to warn 
girls, that dysmenorrhcea may be or may result in 
formidable disease, and that, therefore, it needs their 
earnest efforts to prevent even the simplest forms; and 
in difficult and complicated cases, their good sense 
should enable them to conquer their aversion to 
calling upon the physician for advice and treatment. 

HYGIENIC TREATMENT. 

It must be evident even to the common reader that 
this disease, except in its simplest form, requires medical 
and surgical treatment ; and there is no disease where 
the rules of hygiene should be more strictly observed 
than in this. 

For young girls every means should be exercised that 
will assist in a proper and regular establishment of this 
function ; hence, when this process begins with pain, 
they should be taken from school and all places or occu- 
pation of confinement, from exciting scenes, and from 
mental labor; the ambition to excel even in ordinary 
studies should be checked ; their life should be vegeta- 
tive. Attendance at balls and theatres should be strictly 
forbidden, and the diet be of the blandest character and 
in conformity with the temperament. (See " Tempera- 
ment " and "Food.") And, above all, care should be 
taken that an evacuation of the bowels be obtained 
every day, constipation being not only an aggravation but 
often the sole cause of the disorder. 

It is very common for girls to seek relief from the 
suffering in intoxication. This remark may seem extrav- 
agant, yet we have known girls to take two ounces of 
pure brandy or whiskey at one dose, and declare that 



D YSMENORRHCEA . 2 49 

that was the only means by which to secure relief. This 
practice is dangerous — first, because if it is a case of 
inflammatory dysmenorrhcea, the stimulant aggravates 
the disease ; secondly, if it is of the mechanical form of 
difficulty, the stimulus is useless ; thirdly, the habit of 
drinking may be acquired. There is no doubt that 
in some instances, and particularly in the. neuralgic or 
simple forms, stimulants relieve ; yet it would be greatly 
to their advantage if women should confine their efforts 
during the intervals of ease to the observance of every 
care to prevent the recurrence of the disorder, and leave 
the active treatment to the physician. 

Opiates are also resorted to fcr the relief of this pain- 
ful trouble, which are no less dangerous than stimulants ; 
and we dare assert, from our personal knowledge and 
that gathered from other physicians, that drunkenness 
and opium-eating in women are habits often contracted 
from the habitual recourse to these baneful " remedies " 
during the pains of dysmenorrhcea. We regret to say, 
moreover, that physicians have carelessly encouraged 
those habits, thoughtless of the disastrous results, when 
they should instead have studied their cases thoroughly 
or turned them over to more skillful professional brothers 
if their own .ability failed them. 

Moderation in all things, should be the rule of all 
women suffering from dysmenorrhcea. Rheumatic and 
neuralgic patients, as well" as those of a lymphatic tem- 
perament, should dress warmly, and never be exposed to 
dampness or drafts of cold air ; those of a sanguine 
temperament should make frequent use of cold baths, 
taking the precaution to follow them quickly by brisk 
and hard dry rubbing ; but nervous and lymphatic tem- 



2 $o MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 

peraments will find the warm bath more conducive to 
their comfort. During the three or four days just pre- 
ceding the menses the body should be kept at rest in a 
reclined position, and every night a hot hip-bath should 
be taken before retiring. During the access of pain or 
spasms hot hip-baths, application of hot poultices to the 
abdomen, hot applications to the feet, mucilaginous — 
such as hot decoctions of hops, marsh-mallow, chamo- 
mile, etc., — and vaginal injections of warm water will 
afford relief. If the bowels are not free, they should 
be moved by warm enemas of water. No iced water, 
or very cold drinks of any kind, should be taken imme- 
diately before or during menstruation ; a mouthful of 
cold water has in many instances brought back all 
the pains that had been relieved by proper treatment. 



CHAPTER VI. 

LEUCORRHCEA ("WHITES.") 

THIS disease, although not dangerous to life, is one 
of great discomfort and general debility. It con- 
sists of a flow of mucus from the genital organs, which 
varies according to the constitutional disturbance, and 
the locality and extent of the inflammation, being at 
times white (from which it takes its name), again bluish, 
yellowish, or red with blood ; at times inodorous, again 
fetid. The seat of the irritation or inflammation may be 
in the walls of the vagina, the neck of the womb, the 
lining membrane of the womb itself, or the fallopian 
tubes. 

Leucorrhcea being a symptom of some constitutional 
disturbance rather than a disease, has been by medical 
men classified according to its original causes ; but in a 
work intended for the lay rather than the professional 
reader, a pathological classification would rather burden 
than assist in the comprehension of its description. As 
a principal cause of leucorrhcea we must note the con- 
stitutional inheritance as found in lymphatic subjects, 
ill-developed and feeble, generally known from their 
want of muscular vigor, their pallid faces, soft flesh, 
weak digestion, morbid and melancholic tendencies. 
(See " Lymphatic Temperament.") Girls of such con- 
stitutions may manifest, even during infancy, leucorrhceal 



25 2 MOTHERS AXD DAUGHTERS. 

characteristics, probably excited by irritation induced by ■ 
dentition, or by the presence of worms. 

External causes predisposing to this malady are some- 
times found in the water of certain mineral springs, in 
the use of new beer, unripe fruit, milk diet, tea, and cafe- 
au-lait. 

This last article of diet has, by a French author, been 
declared a very common cause of leucorrhcea among 
French women, who make daily use of it; the same 
author asserting that in cases where women refrained 
from the use of that stimulant they were permanently 
cured of the annoying discharge. Local imitations 
from the application of instruments, the wearing of pessa- 
ries, or solitary habits of a vicious character have been 
found to be sources of this disease. 

Not unfrequently leucorrhcea is induced by the sup- 
pression of some other malady, as a cutaneous eruption, 
rheumatism, gout, the suppression of a hemorrhoidal 
flux, a diarrhoea, or the milk in nursing women ; the 
healing of an old ulcer, the sudden check of a chronic 
cough. 

Again, and more often, it is the result of exposure to 
either heat or cold, insufficient or excessive exercise, 
dampness of the atmosphere, wet feet and damp cloth- 
ing, badly ventilated apartments, insufficiency of light, 
malaria, poor nourishment, prolonged warm baths, medi- 
cated injections, obstinate constipation, rough travelling, 
riding a hard-trotting horse, inflammation of the womb 
or ovaries, uterine displacements or ulceration, abortions, 
and drugs intended to force menstruation. 

Fevers, and particularly miasmatic and scarlet fevers, 
measles, and smallpox often terminate in leucorrhcea, 



LEUCORRIICEA. 



253 



which is then called critical, and regarded as a favorable 
symptom. 

Of all the infirmities that afflict woman, leucorrhcea 
is probably the most common ; it affects women of all 
ages and of all classes, but particularly during the period 
of menstruation. It is, moreover, an intractable disease, 
difficult to cure, and one against which physicians have 
often exhausted their skill and patience in vain. 

The probable reason for their failure may be that it 
has too often been treated as a disease per se, rather than 
as a symptom of disease. No intelligent person could 
attempt to treat an expectoration as a disease, and prog- 
nosticate that when the expectoration ceases the disease 
is cured. The vagina and uterus are lined by the same 
mucous membrane that lines the bronchial tubes, an ex- 
cessive exudation from which would be an evidence of 
irritation or weakness. There is nothing extraordinary 
in leucorrhoea, for it is only the excess of a discharge 
that should always be present for the lubrication of the 
walls, that would otherwise adhere to each other. 

The quality of the discharge may vary just as does the 
quality of a bronchial discharge, both being dependent 
upon constitutional and local condition. 

And in consideration of the monthly excitement and 
congestion of the ovaries and uterus, it is not surprising 
that a debilitated condition of the general system, or 
other causes affecting the organs of generation, should 
often determine an irritation of the uterine and vaginal 
follicles, exciting them to exude an inordinate flow of 
mucus. 

Precursory Symptoms of Leucorrhcea. Heavy pains in 
the lower part of the abdomen and the small of the 



2 S 4 MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS 

back ; distaste for articles of food ; lassitude ; itching of 
the private parts, which may be tumefied and painful. 
This condition may be attended by dryness of the skin, 
fever and sleeplessness. Finally, mucous fluid escapes 
the vagina, varying in color and thickness. As the 
disease progresses the above symptoms are present in an 
aggravated form. 

Acute Leucorrhoea. This form may be distinguished 
from the chronic by its more severe but shorter course. 

When acute, the itching of the vagina may be so vio- 
lent as to be almost unbearable; the local irritation 
spreads to the surrounding parts and to the bladder, 
inducing a constant desire to urinate. Soon the charac- 
teristic discharge makes its appearance, accompanied by 
a sensation of heat and distension of the affected parts. 

For two or three days this condition becomes more 
and more aggravated ; the discharge increases, and from 
white it turns to either yellow or green ; the inclination 
to urinate becomes frequent, and the urine scalds ; the 
local inflammation grows more intense, the pain more se- 
vere and prolonged. In the course of eight or ten days 
the inflammatory symptoms yield, however ; but the dis- 
charge is still on the increase, and becomes thicker and 
of a deeper color. In two or three days more, even 
these last symptoms abate, and the patient becomes con- 
scious of great improvement. Finally, if no error is 
committed, in twenty or thirty days the patient gets en- 
tirely well. The course of this accidental leucorrhcea is 
therefore acute, severe, and short. 

Chronic Leucorrhcea may be a continuance of an acute 
form in consequence of bad treatment; and its course 
then is very irregular, and its duration uncertain. In 



LEUCORRHCEA. 2 5 g 

the chronic form the discharge is continuous, although 
in some instances it intermits; the acute inflammatory 
symptoms, such as the intolerable itching and the tume- 
faction of the parts, may not be present, or only in a 
slight degree ; the pains are less, more bearable, and in- 
termittent ; the vagina less painful to the touch. 

But this form, although not severe, slowly undermines 
the general health from its continuance; the stomach 
takes up the sympathy, loses desire for food, or bears it 
unkindly, rejecting it at the slightest provocation ; diges- 
tion, thus impaired, adds to the general bad condition, 
manifested by weariness, paleness or puffiness of the 
face, and indifference to pleasure; the head partakes 
of the general anaemia, and dizziness, fainting and 
hysteria supervene ; the pulse becomes small and slow, 
and the perspiration scanty. 

The patient then is very susceptible to cold and to all 
mental impressions. 

There is also a transient form of leucorrhcea which 
may occur either before or after menstruation; often- 
times induced by disordered stomach, but borne with 
out much trouble or suffering, passing away with the 
adoption of a proper diet and the restoration of a 
good digestion. 

Leucorrhcea seems to replace in some instances the 
menstrual flux. 

It has happened that instead of the menses a certain 
quantity of white mucus has been excreted periodically 
and regularly every month, lasting four or five days and 
then disappearing. 

Intermittent leucorrhoea, arising from mechanical 
causes, yields easily to proper and preventive treatment; 



2S 6 MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 

when, however, it is a result of feeble, lymphatic and 
scrofulous constitutions, or of long duration, it may baffle 
the best efforts of medical art. 

The mode of life influences the tenacity of leu- 
corrhcea. When long-continued it interferes with 
the regularity of menstruation, reducing its quantity 
and changing its quality; it may even prevent the 
establishment of the menstrual functions at puberty. 
When it has existed for a long time and is suddenly 
arrested the malady may be transferred to other organs, 
as the lungs, exposing them to pneumonia or to a devel- 
opment of consumption if the patient is scrofulous. 

In cases where there is a relaxation of the tissue of 
the vagina or of the muscles supporting the womb, this 
constant humidity tends to relax still more those tissues, 
thus forming displacements and falling of the womb. 

A disease of this character, depending upon so many 
different causes, and particularly upon hereditary and 
constitutional disturbances, apparently simple, amenable 
yet complicated, and fraught with danger, requires so 
much discrimination and clearness of judgment that it 
seems as if no one but the most competent physician 
should be allowed to examine and advise. Regarded, as 
it often is, as a light indisposition, too little attention is 
given to it, and the recommendation of incompetent 
persons too readily adopted; it is probably due to this 
fact that leucorrhcea has been allowed to go on from 
year to year, until it has sapped the very foundation of 
a woman's health, and reduced her to a state of chronic 
valetudinarianism, or sacrificed her to the fatal effects of 
such diseases as ulceration or cancer. 

Hygienic t?-eatment. The treatment of this disease 



LEUCORRHCEA. 2 $ 7 

should consist in the strict observance of the rules of 
hygiene ; for a regimen, adapted to the case, is truly of 
more importance than all the preparations of the phar- 
macopeia. The leucorrhoeal tendency being more gen- 
erally due to constitutional weakness than to any other 
cause, it follows that anything calculated to improve the 
general health should be pre-eminent in the treatment; 
therefore, the patient should be removed from all ener- 
vating influences, of school duties, or any other occupa- 
tion, of heat, cold or dampness, and sent to the country, 
where the atmosphere is pure and bracing. Her nour- 
ishment, with due regard to her capacity, should be 
generous, of digestible meats not overdone; Bordeaux, 
Rhine, Madeira, Port or Sherry wine, used with discre- 
tion, may be added to her dietary. She should take 
regular and systematic exercise in the open air, but 
proportionate to her strength, never beyond it; the 
exercise should be gradually increased, until she can 
walk three or four miles a day without prostration. She 
should not lift, nor carry weights, nor practice cooking 
by hot stoves. She should keep her skin in moderate 
perspiration by warm clothing, careful, however, not to 
expose herself to draughts of cold air. She should shun 
the ball-room, late suppers, and all scenes of excitement. 
She should not remain in wet shoes or garments; and 
when she has unavoidably exposed herself to getting 
wet, she should return home, walking rather than driv- 
ing, immediately remove the wet articles, dry the skin 
by brisk friction, dress herself in dry garments, and move 
about until reaction is complete. Locally, she should 
keep the parts free from accumulations by daily ablutions 
and cleansing with castile soap and water. 



CHAPTER VII. 

HYSTERIA. 

NAMES are seldom hazard expressions. That great 
philosopher, Shakespeare, makes Juliet say: 

*' What's in a name ? that which we call a rose, 
By any other name would smell as sweet.'' 

In the extravagance of her love Juliet thought that but 
for his name, Romeo might have been an angel dropped 
from heaven for her delight ; and that when she 
added, " Romeo, doff thy name," all that was human and 
historic would be thus removed, and he could be her 
own. But, unfortunately for her, the name was as much 
a part of Romeo as he was of his name, and the answer 
to this piece of philosophy was, that the name brought 
them both to a most tragical grave. So, there is a great 
deal in a name; and a man cannot " doff" his name any 
more than he can doff his skin. It is wonderful, in the 
study of the names of animals and things, to see how this 
philosophy has, from the earliest stages of human culture, 
been exercised in the selection of names! Character, 
occupation, station and rank were often known by the 
name of an individual. In the tongues of the Indian 
tribes, this method of naming men and things by their 
qualities has been constant, and in many instances the 
selection most appropriate and logical. 

But in this case, hysteria would puzzle even an Indian; 
it is a name that reveals nothing of its history; it is the 



HYSTERIA, 2S9 

name of an organ, and not of a disease. Our ancient 
philosophers, ignorant of the pathology of this disease, 
located it in the womb, and then named it after that or- 
gan ; hysteria meaning icterus* The only claim it has to 
that name is that, like the organ, the disease is peculiar 
to woman (this is denied, however, by later authors), 
and occurs only during the period of uterine develop- 
ment and menstrual evolution; seldom has it happened 
before puberty or after the close of menstrual life. 

Hysteria is but little understood by people ; to some it 
causes merriment, to others contempt; yet few are the 
maladies on account of which the patient deserves more 
sympathy and kindness. Just imagine a girl conscious 
of an inner power acting independently of herself, caus- 
ing her to laugh when she should weep, and weep when 
she should laugh ! Imagine one's command over oneself 
gone, or the body disobedient to the will ! Imagine one 
talking immoderately when silence would become ! Im- 
agine an ecstasy when soberness would befit ! Turning, 
twisting, writhing in extraordinary movements when 
modesty would forbid ! Imagine one with a horrid pain 
shooting through the brain (a pain almost facetiously 
called " clavus hystericus/' hysterical spike), being told by 
the physician that it is "nothing but hysteria"! Imagine 
a sensation as if a ball were rising in the throat suffocat- 
ing one to death ! Imagine convulsions, apparent death, 
with a pulse as even and regular as the tick of the most 
perfect clock ! Yet, such is hysteria. Many pages might 
be filled with descriptions of its manifestations, so nu- 
merous and varied are they. Nevertheless, a person, 
nay, a girl, thus affected, receives no sympathy, because 
the disease does not kill ! Many a tear has been shed 



260 MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 

over much less dangerous or troublesome affections; 
much sympathy been wasted where it was less needed ! 
Still, no one can tell what hysteria is. The many names 
it has received from different pathologists only prove the 
ignorance existing regarding it. It is easily recognized 
by its manifestations, but its true origin is undiscovered. 

When in ancient times the uterus was believed to be 
an animal, hysteria was believed to be the wanderings 
and vagaries of that animal within the body, as if in a 
frolic or carousal ; later, when pathology became a 
science, some have attributed it to a morbid condition of 
the uterine nerves; others to a similar condition of stom- 
ach and bowels; others to congestions of lungs and 
heart; to spinal irritations, to cerebral excitement, to 
displacements of the womb, to inflammation, ulceration 
or irritability of the same, etc. It is a disease that has 
perplexed many a brilliant intellect; that has been ex- 
plained only to have the explanation denied; it is useless 
to the purpose of this book, therefore, to examine into 
the various speculations regarding its origin ; its imme- 
diate causes and manifestations will suffice, for everything 
else is uncertain. 

Although this disorder is found among all classes of 
women, and in very rare instances in men, it is seldom 
found among, the working class ; its field of action is 
principally among that class who lead an indolent life, 
kept 'awake by the excitement of the imagination. 
Those peculiarly predisposed to hysteria are women of 
ardent temperament, pre-eminently sanguine and nerv- 
ous ; impressionable, lazy and feeble. 

The causes that predispose to hysteria are : the effort 
of nature to establish menstruation at puberty ; every 



HYSTERIA. 261 

thing calculated to irritate or inflame the generative or- 
gans; and delayed, suppressed, or painful menstruation. 
It must be acknowledged, in favor of the uterine theory, 
that a very large proportion of hysterical cases are associ- 
ated with some derangement of the womb or the ovaries. 
Exposure to excessive heat or cold, winds, dampness, cr 
the rays of the sun may produce an attack of hysteria; 
also violent exercise, fatigue, dancing, long vigils, irrita- 
ting articles of diet, and, particularly, cheese, oysters, j 
truffles, mushrooms, pepper, spices, etc. ; extreme pres- l 
sure of clothing; too frequent ablutions, particularly if 
warm ; Strong perfumes, rich food, and abuse of coffee, 
tea, wine or liquors ; love, jealousy, disappointment, etc. 

The immediate causes are : a fit of anger, a fright, a 
violent and sudden affliction, a reproach, improper con- 
versations, the sight of a repulsive object, impressions 
from a tragical drama, somber music or an affecting 
story, humorous tales or plays exciting the risibles, con- 
trariety, a sudden joy or the sudden appearance of an 
object of love or hatred, long and hopeless waiting, bad 
news, irritating applications to the skin, tickling, etc. 

Hysteria (morally speaking) is infectious; if one girl 
falls into a fit of hysteria in the presence of other girls, 
some of the latter will very probably become affected in 
the same way. It is related of a boarding-school that 
it had to be closed, and the girls sent home, on account 
of the many cases that followed^one which occurred in 
presence of the class. 

Women predisposed to this affection present, gen- 
erally, all the traits of a very impressionable nature ; 
they are light, frivolous and opinionated; often capri- 
cious and irascible ; of a humor inconstant and change- 



262 MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 

able. A trifle will cause them to pass from the most 
violent expression of joy, from an immoderate laugh, or 
from affectionate caresses, to sulkiness, sighs, tears and 
bitter reproaches ; even to regret, self-accusation and 
melancholy. 

It may be cruel to say of persons, whose illness makes 
them irresponsible, that they dissimulate ; yet in hysteria 
this is frequently the case. The patient will often affect 
a malady that does not exist; and it is told of a lady 
who had kept her bed for many months, despite the 
remonstrances of friends and medical attendants, that 
the ruse of setting her bed on fire was resorted to ; and 
that in her fright she flew out of bed and house, although 
she had always insisted that it would be death to her to 
move from it. She returned to her home and couch, 
but like other people, and in a natural condition, 
and from that time retired and rose regularly, without 
the slightest apprehension or sickness. 

Again, other diseases, under the influence of hysteria, 
may be greatly exaggerated, irregular, and out of pro- 
portion to the real state of the affected organ. Hysteri- 
cal coughs are so exaggerated as to lead one to suppose 
that pneumonia or phthisis is imminent ; hysterical 
palpitations of the heart, of such violence as to make the 
patient believe that an organic disease is not only possible, 
but certain, the assurances of a skillful medical man to 
the contrary notwithstanding. Apprehension of preg- 
nancy in married women predisposed to hysteria has so 
misled their intelligence that instances have come under 
our observation in which women, sensible in everything 
else, and who had experienced all the symptoms of preg- 
nancy several times before, would insist that they were 



HYSTERIA, 263 

pregnant, and that they distinctly felt the motions of the 
child, when there was not a shadow of enlargement of 
the abdomen, and the womb was in a perfect state of qui- 
escence. To induce the husband and attendants to be- 
lieve with them they would resort to ruse and deception, 
and swallow sickening things to make themselves vomit. 
There is no end to the pranks of hysteria. Those sub- 
ject to it are truly to be pitied; for their distress, whether 
feigned or true, is real to them. Generally, when acci- 
dent or circumstances reveal their real condition, they 
become totally cured of that hallucination, and never 
refer to it again. It seems that the shock to the mind 
received by the humiliating discovery cures the mental 
obliquity of which they have been the victims. I knew 
a lady who feigned death. I was in Norfolk, Va., in 
June, 1865, when a well-known physician approached 
me, and related the case of a lady who was apparently 
dead, and who had been visited by several medical men 
who had all agreed that she was not dead but dying. 
This was her eighth day, however, and yet she was not a 
corpse; and the physician who met me was considerably 
exercised over the case, I said to him, " Go to her, bid 
her good-by, and tell her that, inasmuch as she will die 
in a few hours, you need not return. Do not go, but 
hide yourself so that you can watch her eyes without 
betraying your presence. If she winks, if her eyelids 
tremble, it is a case of hysteria ; give her then a large 
injection [she would take nothing by the mouth, even a 
drop of water would remain unswallowed] of asafetida 
mixture." He did so; in half an hour she opened her 
eyes as from a deep sleep, spoke to her attendants as if 



264 MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 

nothing had been the matter with her, and, what is 
strange, never afterwards alluded to her case. 

Catalepsy is apparent death ; but although very rare, 
when it occurs it is invariably associated with hysteria. 
So, also, is that which is called ecstasy or trance. Hys- 
terical convulsions may be mistaken for epilepsy ; but in 
the latter there is entire loss of consciousness, while in the 
former there is not. The patient on emerging from an 
epileptic fit remembers, absolutely nothing of what oc- 
curred during the paroxysm : not so during an hysterical 
fit — the loss of consciousness is never complete, and 
never occurs at the outset. There are other secondary 
points, such as foam, froth and blood issuing from the 
mouth of a patient during an epileptic fit, which never 
happen during an attack of hys-teria, and other distin- 
guishing characteristics which would not be of much use 
to the lay-reader. 

The diseases that are often simulated by this one are : 
Inflammation of the peritoneiwi (the membrane covering 
and holding in place the organs within the abdomen). 
When acute pain in the abdomen, aggravated by the 
slightest pressure, is present, and is accompanied by hot 
skin, furred tongue and quick pulse, and the symptoms 
appear in a young female subject to irregularity of men- 
struation, the probability is that she is affected by 
hysteria, instead of that dangerous inflammation, peri- 
tonitis. 

Pain in the side simulates pleurisy, diseases of the 
spleen or liver. 

Partial palsy is also simulated by hysteria ; but the 
hysterical paroxysms, and the sudden disappearance of 
the palsy after the paroxysm is over, should be an indi- 



HYSTERIA. 265 

cation that the case is one of hysteria instead of true 
paralysis. 

A sudden loss of voice, " aphonia/' occurs in hysteria, 
leading the attendants to suppose an inflammation or 
disorganization of the larnyx: there are instances on 
record where surgeons have plunged the knife into the 
throat to relieve a supposed and fatal stricture, when in 
reality it was only an hysterical constriction, that could 
have been removed by simple remedies. 

The breasts become tumefied, painful and tender, 
alarming the friends with the anticipation of cancer. 

The hysterical cough is also common, and has led 
even medical attendants to believe in the approach of 
consumption or pneumonia; it is a loud, harsh, dry, 
spasmodic cough, more like a bark than a cough. 

Hiccoughs and eructations, continuing unabated, have 
made people fear a deep-seated disease of the stomach. 

The most common "simulations are, however, pains in 
the joints and along the spine. These have kept women 
in bed for months, undergoing the most active old- 
fashioned treatment without improvement. It is in such 
cases that patients have believed it impossible for them 
to move, and retained the same position in bed, while 
they could have walked like any perfectly well person. 
Dr. Bright relates the case of a young lady who had been 
confined to her bed for nine months. If she attempted 
to move, she was thrown into a paroxysm of agitation 
and of great agony, particularly in the abdomen. She 
gave no evidence of disease whatsoever. She protested 
against getting up, declaring that it was impossible. 
Once he left her for a month, and when he returned he 
found her completely recovered; for, under a deep re- 



2 66 MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 

ligious impression, she had abandoned her former hallu- 
cination, and had gone to work. It is in these cases 
that charlatans, Spiritualists, etc., raise people from the 
dead. They put the patient under the influence of a 
stronger impression, and she gets well. If they confined 
themselves to curing cases of hysteria, they might be of 
some use in society ; but when they go on, wickedly pre- 
tending to cure organic diseases, they should be in- 
dicted, 

Simple hysteria is quickly detected. Women called 
hysterical laugh or cry even immoderately, or commence 
with the former and end with the latter, for trivial causes 
that often would induce but a smile or a moment's sober- 
ness in others. During a play in which several persons 
are engaged, any unusual or general merriment will throw 
a girl into an immoderate and irrepressible fit ol laugh- 
ter, soon followed by long and deep sighs, which are 
only efforts to regain breath ; she will then alternate the 
fits of laughter Yv T ith fits of crying, as if her heart would 
break, alarming some one with the idea of having given 
offense or pain. If this is not immediately checked by 
an extraordinary effort on her part, or her mind is not 
quickly diverted from the object that caused her to laugh, 
these fits become stronger ; a sensation as if a ball were 
rising in her throat causes her to violently grasp her 
clothing to remove the object she fancies is choking her; 
she throws her limbs about and gets partially convulsed ; 
her fingers tighten upon anything within reach, or are 
spread out like unarticulated sticks. She relaxes only 
to go in a little while into another paroxysm. During 
the remissions she moans, pities herself, bewails her fate ; 
no one loves her, everyone is against her ; she is incon- 



HYSTERIA. 267 

solable. She tells strange things ; she repeats what she 
knows, whether it is injurious to others or to herself. 
Great secrets have thus been revealed, and quite as 
often exaggerated, and even invented. This condition 
may last but fifteen or twenty minutes, or may continue 
for hours, and even for days. One instance occurred in 
my practice in which a lady, who received a mental 
shock, fell into a hysterical fit, and for twenty nights fol- 
lowing these fits recurred, commencing about nine or ten 
o'clock in the evening, and ending between four and five 
in the morning. During the day she was as well as usual, 
and it did not seem as if another attack were possible ; 
yet, when evening came she became hilarious ; her eyes 
sparkled, and she would become talkative and witty. 
These were the premonitory symptoms of another attack ; 
these would only change in their order of appearance. 
Generally, while in this talkative state, during which her 
eyes were closed, she would relate amusing stories about 
herself, her mother, sisters, husband, doctor, and anyone 
else ; or repeat Shakespeare by the page. Suddenly she 
would startle the attendants with a piercing shriek, ex- 
claiming, " It is coming !" pressing her hands upon her 
temples. The clavus hystericus was upon her. From 
this she would pass into a convulsion, in which she 
would make a bow of her body backwards, so that pil- 
lows had to be put against the head-board of the bed 
lest her nose be broken. She would come out of a con- 
vulsion in two or three minutes, but in a moment more 
the " spike " would be driven through her temples again 
inducing the same alarming shrieks, to be followed by 
another similar convulsion. This would last sometimes 
an hour or two, when vomiting would supervene, and the 



2 68 MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 

body remain relaxed. This vomiting was, if possible, 
even more distressing than the previous condition ; she 
would retch violently, vomiting but a little gluey mucus. 
In an hour or so this would pass off and she would fall 
into a semi-trance, answering questions, but following 
her own thoughts, and, with a smile on her face, would 
tell all the amusing incidents of her life, or those of per- 
sons present, or of absent friends. Finally, she would 
drop into a doze, from which she would come out re- 
freshed and ready for her breakfast. This lady had had 
a similar attack years before. She was endowed with 
culture and a fine nervous organization, and was not an 
hysterical woman in the common acceptation of the 
term ; she was brilliant in society, but always self- 
possessed. After twenty nights of such torture she came 
out of that condition slightly weakened, but with unim- 
paired health. Fifteen years have now passed, and 
although she has had her good share of human sorrows, 
hysteria has not again disturbed her. 

A very noticeable fact in this disorder is, that although 
it may continue for days and months uninterruptedly, 
the digestive organs are seldom affected ; the appetite 
continues unimpared, and the general system remains in 
a reasonably good condition. 

It is a distressing malady but not a fatal one; no per- 
son has ever died of it unless complicated with some 
structural disease. It is probably due to this immunity 
from danger, and to the extraordinary and often foolish 
behavior of the afflicted ones, that people have learned 
to look upon this infirmity with indifference if not con- 
tempt. 



HYSTERIA. 



269 



TREATMENT. 

As this is a disease peculiar to women of highly nerv- 
ous temperament, of an exalted imagination, care should 
be taken to shield them from all causes predisposing to 
a development of hysteria. The more the brain is re- 
fined by education the more the susceptibility to this 
disorder is increased ; and the fact that it is common 
among the refined class of the cities and exceedingly 
rare among the working women of the country is a proof 
that abundant and pure air, healthy exercise, and a brain 
untainted by the exciting scenes or temptations of city 
life are so conducive to that healthy and normal state of 
the nervous system as to secure exemption from this 
morbidity. Young girls at boarding-schools promiscu- 
ously associated with others, oftentimes of a depraved 
character, are in great danger. Let their minds remain 
pure ; let them avoid conversations and literature of 
dubious character, shun everything of doubtful propriety, 
or they will incur imminent danger of becoming victims 
to a malady whose very name draws a smile of derision. 
It is conceded that love, and all its immoderate desires 
and disappointments, the morbid appetites of precocity 
and the depravity of the senses grown under improper 
sexual stimulus, lay the foundations for this disease, 
which, when acquired, will only leave the victim when 
nature has reached her limit and the body entered its 
season of decay. 

In an issue of the New York Tribune, dated April 6tl\ 
1875, we ^ n d the following Dertinent remarks, which we 
gladly transfer here : " In fashionable, and would-be 
fashionable circles, the poor little infants are dragged to 
balls as soon as they are weaned, and converted into 



2 jo MO THERS AND DA UGHTERS. 

hot-pressed little men and women. The books furnished 
to them, the matinee entertainments provided for them, 
are all calculated to rouse adult passions and thoughts 
into abnormal, monstrous growth. There is no such thing 
as a nursery in the majority of American city homes. 
The children are left to the care of ignorant hired bonnes 
or Irish girls; they swarm in the halls of boarding- 
houses, or haunt the servants' rooms, trying to stretch 
their little brains to grasp the ideas and subjects which 
reach them there. When they have passed out of baby- 
hood, they are dismissed to schools, where they learn 
good or evil, as paid teachers or their companions 
choose. Let any one observe the groups of flaunting 
half-grown girls on their way to school in the cars, or 
the over-dressed coquettish misses sent out to parade 
the streets and display their clothes on a fine afternoon, 
and listen to their conversation, and he will not wonder 
at their escapade, into marriage or a worse fate. 

"It is not book-publishers who are to blame; it is not 
playwrights; it is not French bonnes or Irish nurses. 
They furnish what the public demands of them. The 
one thing needed to give us a generation of modest, 
chaste gentlewomen in our daughters, is — mothers. 
Mothers who know their business, and who do it; 
mothers who have the sense to see that there is a time 
in a young woman's life, as in a man's, when animal 
spirit, or excess of vitality, needs outlet ; mothers who 
can guide their daughters through this strait in all inno- 
cence and purity, instead of subjecting them from their 
very birth to treatment which forces every impure 
element of their nature into unhealthy and obnoxious 
action." 



HYSTERIA. 



271 



Sir Benjamin Brodie's remarks on this point are not 
less pertinent: "You can render/' he says, "no more 
essential service to the more affluent classes of society 
than by availing yourselves of every opportunity of ex- 
plaining to those among them who are parents how 
much the ordinary system of education tends to engender 
the disposition of these diseases among their female 
children. If you would go further, so as to make them 
understand in what their error consists, what they ought 
to do, and what they ought to leave undone, you need 
only point out the difference between the plans usually 
pursued in the bringing up of the two sexes. The boys 
are sent at an early age to school, where a large portion 
of their time is passed in taking exercise in the open air; 
while their sisters are confined to heated rooms, taking 
little exercise out of doors, and often not at all, except 
in a carriage. The mind is over-educated at the expense 
of the physical structure; and, after all, with little 
advantage to the mind itself; for who can doubt that 
the principal object of this part of education ought to be 
not so much to fill the mind with knowledge as to train 
it to a right exercise of its intellectual and moral facul- 
ties ; or that, other things being the same, this is more 
easily accomplished in those whose animal functions are 
preserved in a healthy state, than it is in others?" 

The great majority of cases of hysteria depend upon 
some disorder of the generative function or from an ex- 
aggeration of the affections. In the former all that has 
been said regarding these functional disorders should be 
carefully noticed, and the regimen respectively applied 
as suggested, when it is evident that hysteria is a con- 
sequence of any one of them. In the latter, the parents 



272 MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 

should secure the confidence of their daughters, and ap- 
ply such moral remedies as only a loving mother and 
father can suggest. The cause of the nervous derange- 
ment should be inquired into with care and circumspec- 
tion, lest fear and suspicion be engendered in the girl, 
leading her to deceive. Change of locality, of habits 
and associations, may accomplish a permanent cure. 
What reasoning cannot effect, compulsion might ; but the 
latter should never be resorted to until the former has 
been exhausted. Parents, above all, should never forget 
that they have been young, and that love, although de- 
voted to an unworthy person, is neither unnatural nor a 
crime ; that unreasonable opposition to or compulsory 
abandonment of her affection may throw the object of 
their solicitude into a much worse condition than if she 
had married the one she loved. Inoffensive watch should 
be kept over the habits of the girl predisposed to this 
malady, and in many instances it would be well for the 
mother to take the girl as her companion, and sharer ot 
her room and bed. Let her have plenty of air, exercise, 
innocent and light amusements ; but keep her from spec- 
tacular dramas, the ballets, impressive music, and the 
company of over-weening associates ; from religious ex- 
travagances, and anything that would strongly impress 
the imagination. 

The diet should be light and principally of vegetables ; 
rich viands, wines, beer or liquors absolutely forbidden, 
except in special cases of anaemia. 

During an attack, cold affusions are very beneficial, 
— sprinkling the face, or pouring a column of cold water 
from a pitcher on the head ; the shock thus produced has 
often broken a spell instantly. Remove all tight dress- 



HYSTERIA, 2?3 

ing, place the patient on her bed, give her plenty of free 
air, and remove from the room every person calculated 
to keep up or increase the mental excitement. In long 
and continued paroxysms the physician should be in 
attendance. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

INFLAMMATION AND DISPLACEMENTS OF THE WOMB. 

HAVING designed this book for the use of girls 
before they attain the state of nubility, we might 
claim that our task ends here ; for the disorders that are 
common among girls, and that ordinarily lay the founda- 
tion for organic diseases of the womb when older or 
married, have already been treated of. But, inasmuch 
as these diseases are found, though rarely, even among 
unmarried women, who should enjoy perfect immunity 
from them if they attended faithfully to the hygienic 
rules adapted to their age and their condition, a resume 
of the possible consequences of careless habits will be 
given in this chapter, with the view to warn them against 
excesses which, even if not immediately dangerous, are 
very likely to result in years of pain, feebleness, and 
suffering of various kinds, because sapping the health 
and strength of the characteristic organ of woman — the 
type of motherhood. 

t The womb up to the period of puberty is totally pas- 
sive; has no functions to perform, except such as con- 
cern its own existence. It is not, therefore, then liable 
to inflammations or disorganizing diseases. But as soon 
as it reaches the stage of development for the preparation 
of the productive period, and becomes subject to a 
monthly orgasm, it is liable to all the diseases observed 
in the other organs of the economy. The more active 



DISPLACEMENTS OF THE WOMB. 



275 



an organ, the more liable to derangement, as may be 
noticed in the frequent diseases of the brain, of the 
lungs, of the stomach, bowels or liver, and the compara- 
tively rare diseases of the spleen ; hence, the ovaries and 
the womb, when in the dormant state, scarcely ever 
assume disease, but when actively engaged in the exer- 
cise of the functions peculiar to their organization are 
susceptible to all the influences surrounding them; nay, 
the extreme sensibility with which they are endowed, 
their peculiar irritability and physiological course, con- 
stitute a state of activity which dominates the entire 
physical life of woman. It is not, therefore, surprising 
that the womb, so much concerned in that physical life, 
should become deranged in its operations or disorgan- 
ized by disease ; indeed, it is marvelous that an organ 
subject to so many phases, to so many alterations, should 
maintain its integrity as often as it does.. Supplied 
abundantly with vessels carrying blood, with nerves 
connecting it with nearly every other organ, it might be 
supposed that it would often be invaded by inflamma- 
tions or nervous maladies, particularly when subjected 
to violence ; but nature, having ranked it in the class of 
the noblest organs, has provided it with means of resist- 
ance which enable it to undergo the severest trials 
without perishing 

INFLAMMATION. 

Inflammation of the womb is divided into the acute 
and the chronic. Acute inflammation of the womb, the 
ovaries or the vagina, is very rare amongst unmarried 
women. The distinguishing symptoms attending the 
acute form, however, are fever and severe local pain. 



276 MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 

The pain in the region of the womb may be so acute as 
to render even the weight of the clothes unbearable ; it 
extends to the back and even down the thighs ; the parts 
are swollen, "and sensitive to the touch. Standing or 
walking is almost impossible ; the sitting or lying posi- 
tion relieves, in favoring the inflamed organs. The 
bladder and the rectum become, also, sensitive, render- 
ing evacuations from either difficult and painful. Dur- 
ing the attack, the fever is accompanied by thirst, a 
furred tongue, headache, hot skin and nausea. Acute 
I inflammation of the uterus may be confounded with in- 
flammation of the bladder; the physician is the only 
person qualified to make a differential diagnosis, and 
therefore should be called to examine the case. 

Chronic inflammation of the uterus is more common 
than the acute ; it may be a consequence of an anterior 
acute attack, but more generally it is the result of con- 
tinued local irritations. This inflammation is partial 
rather than general ; that is, it occupies a portion of the 
womb rather than its whole body, and the part more 
generally affected is the neck. The symptoms of the 
chronic form vary from the acute, in being much less in- 
tense and in the absence of fever. The patient generally 
experiences a constant dull, aching, deep-seated pain in 
the lower part of the abdomen, particularly in the 
groins ; also a sensation of weight in front, and a dull, 
aching pain in the back. The backache is almost con- 
stant. Walking, riding, driving, going down stairs, ag- 
gravate all these symptoms, and cause the patient to 
long for rest. Before and during menstruation the pains 
are greatly increased. The stomach sympathizes in very 
high degree, and is nauseated at the slightest provoca- 



DISPLACEMENTS OF THE WOMB. 277 

tion. The whole system is irritated, inducing repeated 
sick headaches and various forms of dyspepsia or hys- 
teria. Many cases of dyspepsia and hysteria have been 
permanently relieved by successfully treating a chronic 
inflammation of the neck of the womb. In fact, con- 
tinued nausea, when there is no disease of the stomach, 
may be taken as a sure sign of chronic inflammation of 
the womb. 

Women thus affected are generally sallow, languid, 
very sensitive, and liable to headaches, want of appetite, 
and constipation. Common symptoms complained of 
by such sufferers are flatulence, heartburn, loss of ap- 
petite, foul tongue, constipation, headaches, disordered 
vision, sleeplessness, bad dreams, flushing of the face, 
palpitation of the heart, etc. 

This form of inflammation is liable to perpetuate itself 
unless skillfully treated by a physician, as, when long- 
continued, ulcerations of the neck of the womb are apt 
to follow, with or without discharge. When the ulcers 
are very active, or even indolent, discharges occur, which 
vary from a healthy to a thin, serous, purulent char- 
acter; they may be so slight as to go unnoticed, or may 
be very abundant and troublesome. This discharge 
should not be confounded with leucorrhoea ; in ulcera- 
tions it is generally of a bloody or of a purulent charac- 
ter; red, yellow, or greenish. 

We could not follow in this work the manifold symp- 
toms of structural disorganization resulting from these 
inflammations; it is a subject on which volumes have 
been written by very able authors, and one which is more 
applicable to married women or those advanced in years, 
than to young unmarried ladies. These diseases are 



278 MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. 

noticed here because they are often the consequences of 
the simpler disorders of the uterine functions unobserved 
or neglected in the earlier period of life, when, from ig- 
norance of the functions peculiar to their sex, girls com- 
mit acts of indiscretion that eventually lead to the 
development of such diseases. The several chapters on 
the various disorders of menstruation should be to them 
a sufficient guide in the prevention of structural diseases. 
When those diseases appear, no false modesty should 
prevent their appealing to a skillful physician for aid, 
as without it years of suffering, and possibly a painful 
death, will ensue. 

DISPLACEMENTS. 

An unnatural position of the womb is a disorder which 
should not affect girls ; yet we regret to say that in the 
higher classes of society it prevails. By referring to the 
chapter on the anatomy of the womb it will be seen that 
it is held in place by ligaments, and by the surrounding 
pressure of the vagina, and other tissues. If, therefore, 
the condition of a girl is that of general weakness, the 
ligaments and other tissues are relaxed, and the womb 
allowed to fall downwards for want of support; this 
would be a simple case of prolapsus, falling of the womb. 
There are other causes predisposing to this displacement, 
as : increased weight and size of the uterus, which is possi- 
ble after repeated inflammations, or by the presence of 
tumors within its chamber ; distention of the abdo?nen, in- 
duced by habitual constipation, inflammation of the 
intestines, dropsy, a distended bladder, enlargement of 
the ovaries, etc. ; pressure on the abdomen, from tight 
dresses, corsets, or heavy clothing carried on the hips, 



DISPLACEMENTS OF THE WOMB. 279 

etc. ; leucorrhcea, facilitating local weakness and relax- 
ation. 

Displacements may, however, occur instantaneously 
from a great exertion in carrying weights, lifting, strain- 
ing in defecation or urination ; from a leap, a fall on feet 
or knees, a blow ; from long standing, or excessive dan- 
cing ; from spasmodic coughs, sneezing, and vomiting. 

These displacements have received different names ac- 
cording to their character ; for the womb may fall for- 
ward or backward, or double upon itself. We mention 
these varieties simply to convey a general idea of their 
nature and causes. When it falls directly downwards it 
is called prolapsits j when its bends forward, anteversion ; 
when backward, retroversion j when it bends upon itself 
forward, anteflexio7i ; when it bends upon itself back- 
ward, retroflexion ; and when it projects out of the 
mouth of the vagina, procidentia. There is another, 
but very rare, variety termed inversio?i, when the fundus 
of the womb falls within its own cavity. 

Bearing in mind the anatomical fact that the womb 
lies between the bladder and the rectum, it is easily com- 
prehended that if the bladder is kept distended with 
urine it will press the womb backward upon the rectum ; 
and, vice versa, if the rectum is allowed to become un- 
usually distended with fecal matter, it will thrust the 
womb forward upon the bladder. When this is allowed 
to go on habitually, the womb acquires that position thus 
forced upon it, and retains it permanently unless re- 
placed in proper position. 

Simple displace7neiits may be carried a long time with- 
out causing discomfort, particularly by strong women of 
a phlegmatic temperament, or of a not very susceptible 



2 8o MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS, 

nervous system ; but others, more irritable, soon become 
aware of some derangement by the innumerable un- 
pleasant sensations of which they become the victims. 

The general symptoms are : languor, lassitude, and 
weakness ; the patient is inclined to lie down after every 
little exertion ; there is disposition to pain in the head, 
in the eyes, temples, and almost constantly in the back; 
if of nervous temperament, the patient becomes irritable, 
peevish, excitable and restless; the appetite is very often 
disturbed, and the stomach often feels as if caving in. 
The patient is better in the morning, and always after 
long rest ; her feet are cold, and her face often flushed. 

The local symptoms are : sensations of fullness, of 
pressure and of weight in the lower portion of the pelvis ; 
if the womb falls forward, the pressure on the bladder 
induces a desire to pass water frequently, sometimes 
with inability to do so ; if the womb falls backward, the 
sensation of pressure and weight is at the rectum. Dur- 
ing an evacuation, particularly if constipated, a sensation 
is felt as if everything were dragged out. " Bearing 
down" is another and very common sensation, accom- 
panied often by what women thus affected call an " open 
feeling" at the mouth of the vagina. Standing, walking 
or riding aggravate all these sensations, while the recum- 
bent position relieves them greatly. 

Menstruation is generally regular and painless, unless 
the womb is bent upon itself, in which case all the symp- 
toms of dysmenorrhoea may be present. 

A diagnosis of displacements is not possible from the 
symptoms above indicated. When there is a suspicion 
of such an occurrence, a local examination is necessary 
to determine the case. 



DISPLACEMENTS OF THE WOMB. 2 8l 

These deviations of the position of the uterus are not 
generally attended with danger ; but if allowed to con- 
ti?iue, the system gradually sympathizes, and we then 
have an array of unpleasant symptoms never to be re- 
lieved until the uterus is properly replaced. Complete 
rest on the back for a week or two is often sufficient for 
the uterus to return to its place, provided the obstruc- 
tions to its accomplishment are removed. When rest is 
not sufficient to restore it to its place, complications may 
be expected which only a competent physician should 
be allowed to treat. 

It should be observed here that, although simple dis- 
placements may be of little importance to an unmarried 
woman, they are always grave to a married one ; and 
that, therefore, no young woman should be permitted to 
remain in such a condition when entering the connubial 
state. 



Having fulfilled a task conceived from many years of 
experience in the treatment of these diseases, and sug- 
gested by an earnest desire to improve the general health 
of girls, that they may be strong in the fulfillment of 
their high duties as women, we rest here, conscious that, 
if we have succeeded in our intent, no greater service 
could have been rendered to that sex in which man 
finds mother, wife, and daughter; and all the endear- 
ments and pleasures which give to life its chief joy, 
happiness and comfort. 



INDEX. 



A. 

PAGE 

Accidents, what they teach . . 26 

Adolescence 73 

Air, in relation to human health . 173 
Hot and Dry, effects of, upon 

health 173 

Cold and Dry . . . .174 
Damfi and Hot .... 176 
Cold and Humid . . . 176 

In Motion 177 

Mountain 178 

Sea 179 

Temperature of . . . . 1S0 
Rapid changes of the . . . 180 
Of dwellings .... 180 

Causes of bad, of dwellings . 180 

Change of, or ventilation . . 180 
How affected by noxious gases 

in dwellings . . . .181 
Of the sick room .... 186 
Affecting girls at school . . 187 

Amenorrhcea 218 

Delayed Menstruation. 

Causes of 2i9 

Treatment of . . . . 220 
Suppressed Menstruation. 

Causes of . . . . 221 

Treatment of . . . . 226 
Retained Menstruation, 

Causes of 228 

Treatment of . . . . 230 
Atmosphere (see A ir). 
A Vexed Question . . . .16 



B. 

Beaumont's experiments on the di- 
gestibility of Food . . 129-146 
Bile, its function in digestion . . 128 



PAGE 

Blood, Circulation of 135 
Purification of ... 138 
BoneS of woman, and of man . . 37 
Boys and Girls, their mode of 
growth, morally and physi- 
cally 19-31 

Breasts, anatomy and physiology 

of 52 

Necessity for well-developed . 53 
Dress in relation to the growth 

o f # 53 

Hygiene to secure a good de- 
velopment of . . . . 54 
Of woman, and of man . . 36 



Catalepsy, distinguished from Hys- 
teria (see Hysteria). 
Chemistry and digestion . . . 137 



33 
127 
127 
230 
231 
231 



138 

67-68 



Chest of woman and of man 

Chyme 

Chyle 

Chlorosis . 

Symptoms of 
Cause of . . 
Treatment of 
Circle of Life 
City Life, dangers of 
Clothing in relation to the preset 

vation of the life of girls , , 153 

Heat-conducting power of Linen 154 

" u Flax 154 

*' Cotton 154 

** Wool 154 

u Silk 154 

" Fur 154 

" Feathers 154 

Electrical conducting power of . 154 



284 



INDEX. 



PAGE 

Clothing, Shape of ... 155 

Corset as an article of . . 156 

Color of 157 

The head ..... 158 
The neck ..... 159 
The trunk ..... 159 
The extremities .... 160 
Reflections upon .... 163 
Constipation from partial . . 168 
Emblematic .... 170 

Should be equally warm all over 163 

Cotton, heat conducting power of*. 154 

Corset, as an article of dress . . 156 
History of the .... 156 
Baneful effects of the . . . 156 

Color of Clothing in relation to 

heat 157 

Constipation, from unequal dress- 
ing 168 

The cause of displacements of 
the womb .... 169-170 

Crisis, Menstrual, commencement 

and natural course . . 85-92 



D. 



Dancing, effect of, on health . 


. 118 


Dementia 


• 74 


Digestion, process of 


. 128 


Displacements of the womb 


(see 


Womb). 




Dressing (see Clothing). 




Driving, effect of, on health . 


. 120 


Dysmenorrhea 


. 241 


Painfzcl Menstruation. 




Causes of ... 


242-244 


Symptoms of 


• 243 


Simple 


• 245 


Accidental . 


. 246 


Congestive . 


. 246 


Inflammatory 


. 24 


Mechanical or physical 


. 247 


Treatment of . . . 


. 248 



E. 

Electricity, conducting power of, 

by various articles of clothing. 154 



page 
Epilepsy, distinguished from Hys- 
teria (see Hysteria). 
Equality of the Sexes, to be one of 

excellence, not kind . . 23 
Exercise, and its relation to bodily 

functions ..... 114 

Walking 117 

Riding 117 

Dancing 118 

Rowing 120 

Games 120 

Driving 120 

Sea-going * . . . .121 

Singing 122 

Of girls at school . . . 123 

Extremities, clothing of the . . 160 



F. 

Fallopian Tubes, their anatomy, 

functions, and position in pelvis 49 
Fashion, as a social law . . 102-109 
Its exaggerations . . .110 

Feathers, heat conducting power 

of 

Flax, heat conducting power of 
Food, and its relation to the preser- 
vation of life 
Beaumont's experiments on the 
digestibility of various articles 
of food .... 129-146 
As classified by Liebig . . 130 
And its progress in civilization . 130 
And chemistry .... 136 
Adaptation of the elements of, 

to the want of the body . . 142 
Proportionate elements of (table) 142 

Respiratory 144 

Nitrogenized .... 144 

As affecting character. . . 148 
Rules for taking . . . 149-151 
Functional Irregularities of 



i54 
i54 



125 



Menstruation 
Symptoms of 

Regimen to be observed in . 
Predisposing Causes of 

Temperaments . . 

Diet 



190 
192 

*93 
197 



197-199 



INDEX. 



28S 



PAGE 

Bad Air . . . . .200 
Want of Exercise . . . 200 
Over Study . • . 201-209 

Exposure 209 

Pressure 209 

Uncleanliness . . . .210 

Idleness 210 

Immediate Causes of, 
Exposure to sudden change . 212 
Emotions .... 212 

Love 216 

Accidents \ dfc. . . .217 
Fur, heat conducting power of . . 154 



G. 



Games, effects of, on health 


. 120 


Gases, noxious gases in dwellings 


. 181 


From burning coal 


.183 


" wood . 


. 183 


41 oil 


. 184 


'* candles 


. 184 


Illuminating . . 


.183 


Dangerous, from water-closets 


and stationary basins 


.185 


Gastric Juice, function of the. 


in 


digestion .... 


. 126 


Girls and Boys, their mode 


of 


growth, morally and physic- 


ally 


19-31 


At school • - « 


. 187 


Green Sickness 


. 230 


Symptoms of . . . 


. 231 


Causes of ... . 


. 232 


Treatment of 


. 232 



H. 

Head, clothing of the . . .158 
Health in the struggle for existence 21 
And Vigor, the foundations for 
success in life . . , .24 

What is ? 26 

Violation of the laws of, and 
human responsibility regarding 
it 26-27 



PAGE 

Hemorrhage, distinguished from 
Menorrhagia (see Menorrhagia). 

Hygienic Generalities : Air, Food, 

Light and Exercise . . 95-99 

Hysteria 258 

Causes of , 260 

Distinguished from Catalepsy . 264 
" Epilepsy . 264 
Diseases simulated by . . 264 
Symptoms of ... 266 

Treatment of ... 269 



I. 

Ice-Water and Ices . . . 129 
Ignorance, and its effects on health 9 
Imagination, influence of, on hasten- 
ing puberty . . . .87 

Mind and 201 

Infancy 73 

Inflammation of the Womb (see 

Womb). 



K. 

Knowledge of the body . 



Leucorrhcea 

Causes of • 

Symptoms of 

Acute . 

Chronic 

Transient 

Intermittent 

Treatment of 
Liebig's classification of food 
Limbs of woman and of man 
Linen, heat conducting power of 



17 



25X 

252 
253 
254 
254 
255 
255 

. 256 
130 
37 

, 154 



M. 

Man's superior advantages over 
woman the result of physical 
superiority in power . , 



286 



INDEX. 



PAGE 

Man and woman the complement of 

each other . . . .23 

And woman physically compared 

in growth .... 31-39 
Reasons for his leadership . . 24 

Menorrhagia 234 

Excessive Menstruation. 

Causes of 236 

Distinguished from hemorrhage . 237 

Active 238 

Passive 238 

Nervous 238 

Spasmodic 238 

Treatment of ... 238 

Menstruation : Physiological pro- 
cess 75-78 

Warning symptoms . . .76 
As related to ovulation . 79-85 
Of city and of country girls . 86-87 
Affected by excitement, educa- 
tion, temperament . . .88 

Duration of 88 

Reappearance of, after suspen- 
sion 89 

Natural disturbances of . 91 

(See Puberty) . . . . 75 
Delayed (see Amenorrhcea) . 
Epoch of its commencement and 

mode of its course . . 75-92 
Suppression of (see Amenorrhcea). 
Retention of (see Amenorrhcea). 
Chlorotic (see Amenorrhcea). 
Excessive (see Menorrhagia). 
Painful (see Dysmenorrhea). 
Periodicity . 
General irregularities of 
Functional irregularity of 
Sj'mptoms of 
Regimen 
Causes of 

u immediate 
" accidental 

Modesty, of timidity 
True 

Mothers, Duty of . 

Appeal to, to instruct daughters 

in functions of their sex . 13-14 
Sad story 204 

Muscles of woman and of man . 37 




N. 

Neck, clothing of the . . .159 

O. 

Ovaries, their anatomy and position 

in pelvis . . . . . 41 
Functions .... 41-49 

Ovulation as connected with Men- 
struation .... 80-85 



Pancreatic Juice, its function in 

digestion 128 

Pelvis, anatomy of . . . .40 
In relation to woman's safety . 40 
Difference of, in the two sexes . 42 

Growth of 43 

How to preserve its proportions . 42 
Advice to mothers for the protec- 
tion of the, in girls . . .44 

Physiology as a moral teacher 26-30 

Puberty . . . . . .70 

Menstruation the characteristic 
of, in woman . . . .75 

Warning symptoms of, in young 
girls 76-78 



R. 

Responsibility of parents and teach- 
ers 10 

Riding, effects of, on health . . 117 
Rowing, effects of, on health . . 120 



Saliva, function of, in digestion . 126 
School, exercise for girls at . . 123 
Houses, air of, affecting girls . 187 
Sea-Going, effects of, on health . 121 
Sea-Sickness, how to avoid, effects 

of, on health .... iai 



INDEX. 



PAGE 

Sexes, moral and physical difference 

of the 31 

Shape of Clothing in relation to 
the maintenance of animal 

heat 155 

Silk, heat conducting power of . 154 
Singing, effect of, on health . . 122 
Skin, its part in nutrition . . . 126 
Society in its relations to the health 

of girls .... 100-113 
Social law .... 101 

Social Excitement and its conse- 
quences — experience of Georges 
Sand .... 111-112 

Stature of woman and of man . 36 
Symptoms of Menstrual disturbance, 

Normal . . . . .91 
Abnormal .... 190-196 



T. 

Temperaments ..... 59 
Knowledge of, necessary . . 59 
Sanguine, and its hygiene . . 61 
Lymphatic, and its hygiene . 62 
Bilious, and its hygiene . . 64 
Nervous, and its hygiene . . 65 
Mixed, etc 66 

Temperature of the body as affected 

by dress .... 152-154 
Evil results of unequal, . 167-170 



Trunk, clothing of the 



V. 



287 

PAGE 
• 159 



Virility .... 
Vital Force and digestion 



73 
137 



w. 

Walking, effects of on health . . 117 
Whites (see Leucorrhcea). 
Woman's Strength in relation to 

occupation . . . .22 
Woman and Man the complement 

of each other . . . .23 
Her moral and physical charac- 
teristics .... 31-33 
Necessity of her self-knowledge 11-14 
Womb, position of . . .41 

Anatomy of 46 

Its growth 48 

Inflammation of . . . . 274 
Displacement of . . . . 274 
Symptoms of inflammation of . 275 
Causes of inflammation of . . 275 
Symptoms and causes of dis- 
placement of . . . 278-280 
Wool, heat conducting power of . 154 



MATERNITY: 

A Treatise for Young Wives and Mothers. 
By T. S. VERDI, A.M., MJ». 

FIFTH EDITION, 



This little book has already met so cordial a reception from 
press and people that the publishers think it well to preface the 
fifth edition with some opinions concerning the work from leading 
physicians and from the press, — medical, religious, and secular, — - 
to which attention is asked, as giving an impartial judgment of 
the book. There is a growing desire on the part of the public to 
exercise a more intelligent care in regard to the vitally important 
topics which are so clearly, strongly, and delicately treated in this 
volume ; and it is to be hoped that those who undertake the holy 
duties of "Maternity" will find herein something to counsel and 
aid them when they most need it. 



From, Distinguished Physicians 

TO THE PUBLISHERS. 

M The information which it contains cannot fail to be of the highest benefit to 
those who have the care of children. The author evinces a thorough knowledge 
of the subject, and his suggestion and advice are both intelligent and practical. " — 
J. W. Dowling, M.D., 58 West Twenty-fifth Street, New York. 

" There is a freshness, a terseness, and vigor about it which I have never before 
seen in any work of this kind. It is a book fully up with the times, written by an 
original thinker and careful observer, which, while it must diffuse an immense 
amount of correct information to the public, could at the same time be perused by 
physicians with advantage." — J. T. Talbot, M.D., Boston, Mass. 

" No one needs instruction more than a young mother, and the directions given 
by Dr. Verdi in this work are such as I should take great pleasure in recommend- 
ing to all the young mothers, and some of the old ones, in the range of my prac- 
tice."— George E. Shipman, M.D., Chicago, III. 

"Let some of the mothers to whom this work is addressed look over the 
remarks on ' How to dress the children,' ' How to clothe the infant while asleep,' 
nay, even l How to appreciate the cries ' of the little ones, and they will thank the 
author for his care in their behalf. If they have not sufficient nourishment for 
their offspring, they may find how to prepare and select from twenty articles. 
They will find zuhen children should study, and how they should learn, when to 
exercise and what games are best for the sexes. In fact this book fills an impor- 
tant place in our popular literature, and will rank with the best essays of the kind 
in the world."— Wm. Tod Helmuth, M.D., New York City {late of St. Louis). 



14 OPINIONS OF PHYSICIANS 

TO DR. VERDI. 

" I hope it will bring you great joy by its being thoroughly spread, and thus 
spreading the love for our science amongst that class of mankind to whom it is spe- 
cially addressed, — man's better half." — C. G. Raue, M. D., Philadelphia. 

" Allow me to express my thanks to you for the work on ' Maternity.' From a 
superficial examination of the book, I can speak only in its praise." — D. H. Beck- 
WITH, M. D., Cleveland, Ohio. 

u A book of this kind was really required by families, and I think there is much 
in this one of decided benefit to mothers. It is written in a clear and popular style, 
and will, I doubt not, accomplish all you anticipate from it." — E. E. Marcy, M. D., 
New York City. 

" We have no hesitation in recommending it to the public." — C. Neidhard, M. D., 
Philadelphia. 

" Dr. Yerdi's Book is replete with useful suggestions for wives and mothers *, and 
his medical instructions for home use accord with the maxims of my best experience 
in practice." — John F. Gray, M. D., Fifth Avenue Hotel, New York City. 



FROM THE PRESS. 

" The volume is really meritorious. It contains a great amount of information of 
which not only young wives and mothers, but young physicians, and old ones too, 
would do well to possess themselves. The author deserves great credit for his labor, 
and the book merits an extensive circulation." — U. S. Medical and Surgical Jour- 
nal ( Chicago). 

" Dr. Yerdi's work, under the general term ' Maternity,' treats of many of the 
wants, 'conditions, and accompaniments of womanhood and this it does in such an 
original, fresh, and forcible manner, touching upon many points never before de- 
scribed, that no physician could peruse the book without pleasure *, and every wo- 
man, whatever her medical predilections, would find in it a mass of valuable infor- 
mation." — New England Medical Gazette (Boston), 

" We hail the appearance of this work with real pleasure. It is dictated by a pure 
and liberal spirit, and will be a real boon to many a young mother. We hope that 
the book will sell so well that a new edition will be soon demanded." — American 
Medical Observer ( Detroit). 

" The description of disease, and the general hygienic and dietetic directions, illus- 
trate the erudition cf the author. This book is written in a high moral tone, and 
will no doubt aid in enforcing correct health views among the people." — Medical 
Investigator ( Chicago). 

''Contains some exceedingly valuable information, not only for young wives and 
mothers, but also for young and even old physicians. Heretofore the works which 
were styled ' popular,' on the subjects treated of in Dr. Yerdi's book, were generally 
1 catch-penny ' concerns, to entrap the over-curious, the young, or the immoral. So 
generally has this been the case, that the profession as a body has learned to con' 
demn such publications. It required, then, no little confidence in so prominent a 
member of our school to hand to the public a complete treatise on a subject of vital 
import, not only to the ' mothers of the period,' but to the rising generation. The 
whole work is full of sound sense and excellent ideas, and the treatment of various 
diseases is laid down with precision and conciseness." — Western Homceopothic Ob- 
server {St. Louis). 



AND THE PRESS. 15 

"This is a carefully written and very comprehensive work, whose author has for 
years been well known in Washington as an unusually able and successful practi- 
tioner. It treats of all the circumstances connected with maternity, under which the 
advice of a sympathetic and well-qualified physician is needed, with great ability. 
While the writer is clear and precise throughout, he is sensitively scrupulous in re- 
gard to the delicacy with which the subject-matter is approached and discussed. In 
addition to the strictly medical and surgical portions of the work, there are valuable 
chapters devoted to the physiological care and training of infancy and youth. In 
short, the whole contents will be at once recognized by any sensible woman as con- 
stituting a safe friend and guide. The value of the book is enhanced by a clear and 
well-arranged synoptical index, reference by the use of which is remarkably easy." — 
New York Times. 

" Until quite recently the important subject of child-bearing, and, indeed, the 
whole physical life of woman, has been popularly ignored. There was little or noth- 
ing in the English language that a husband could put into the hands of a wife, or a 
mcther give to her innocent daughter, containing information on this important 
theme, so vitally important to health, happiness, and domestic prosperity. The 
spirit of Dr. Verdi's book is admirable in these respects. It evinces throughout, the 
kind and faithful physician, advising, warning, and enlightening, as delicately, yet 
as freely, as could a parent in intimate and confidential communion with the most 
sensitive child. It is heartily to be recommended, as animated by a pure, catholic, 
earnest, and intelligent spirit, likely to effect much good and no harm." — New 
York Star. 

li A very sensible and safe book, and just such as should be in the hands of every 
wife and mother. It is a good sign of the times that educated physicians are furnish- 
ing this class of books, and not leaving young mothers to follow the ignorant and 
often horrible whims and advice of old women. Next to a sensible physician, a book 
like this is wanted in every family." — The Pacific Churchman (San Francisco). 

" It treats of delicate subjects, but in a wise and healthful way that gives no offence 
to the purest taste. Pregnancy, labor, children's diseases, the physical and moral 
training of boys and girls, etc., are its leading topics, and the young mother for her- 
self, or the old mother wishing to inform her daughters of what in physical science it 
most concerns them to know, will find it invaluable. It is a pity that concerning 
these most sacred and most important things most people enter married life so igno- 
rant " — The Advance {Chicago, 111.). 

" Dr. Yerdi is a w T ell-known and highly esteemed physician of the Homoeopathic 
School of Medicine, practising in Washington City. He is also a gentleman of gen- 
eral culture and intelligence, and in his preface to this work he disclaims any subser- 
viency to the arbitrary rules of any system. He has certainly treated his present 
subject in a comprehensive and scientific manner. All that it is important to the 
wife and mother to know is perspicuously stated, in the language and style of pro- 
fessional decorum which characterizes the book, and makes it entirely unexception- 
able for the class of readers for whom it is intended " — Philadelphia Age. 

" This volume is hailed as. a new and much-needed family book- It bears the mint 
marks of a scholarly mind, of great experience in the medical profession, and of thor- 
ough professional and scientific research." — Northern Budget {Troy, N. Y). 

" The most delicate questions are approached and presented in modest language, 
such as only a refined and cultivated physician would employ in reference to delicate 
matters. It is a capital book, and deserves a wide circulation. "— Pittsburg {Pa.) 
Gazette. 



16 OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. 

" Among the various volumes of this kind which the last two or three years have 
produced, we give a high place to that of Dr. Verdi. It is admirable in its exposition 
of the principles of physiology, in its interpretation of the laws of hygiene, and in the 
eminent good sense of its practical directions, not only to the invalid, but to the as 
yet strong and well." — Harper's Monthly. 

" One of the most interesting and instructive books of the kind that we have seen 
for some time. It treats with great delicacy of a delicate subject, and contains a vast 
amount of information, valuable not only to every mother, but to all heads of fami- 
lies. Although the book does not render the service of a physician unnecessary, it 
enables the patient, or those in charge of the patient, to act promptly, intelligently, 
and with efncaey in cases where a physician cannot be readily obtained." — New 
York Herald, 

" There are few intelligent mothers who will not be benefited by reading and keep- 
ing by them for frequent counsel a volume so rich in valuable suggestions." — Hearth 
and Home. 

" This is an excellent work for young wives and mothers, and gives much infor- 
mation about the bearing and the rearing of offspring not generally imparted by 
parents to marriageable daughters, but which is nevertheless vitally important for 
them to possess." — New England Farmer. 

" On the whole, we have all praise and no censure for this learned, delicate, truth- 
ful, useful, and soulful book. The freshness and grace of its style have all the fasci- 
nations of an elevated narrative." — Washington (D. C.) Chronicle. 

" The writer who meets with even moderate success in such treatment is entitled 
to considerable praise, while he who shows himself thoroughly master both of sub- 
ject and treatment, as does Dr. Verdi, deserves the warmest and heartiest of commen- 
dation." — Detroit (Mich.) Free Press. 

" Taking all its qualities into account, we think it is not too much to say that 
every wife and mother ought to have a copy of this work." — The Liberal Christian 
(Neiv York). 

" It gives plain and sensible directions touching the various duties peculiar to the 
wifely state, the care of children, and the diseases peculiar to children and mothers." 
— New York Tribune. 

u The author of this work is widely known here as a leading homoeopathic physi- 
cian Treats in a popular, intelligent way upon a large range of topics under 

the general head designated in the title." — Washington ( D. C.) Evening Star. 

44 A truly complete and valuable work, — a much-needed manual for the family on 
the most interesting and vital of material subjects." — Sunday- School Times (Phila.) 

" Dr. Verdi's high reputation entitles his book to implicit confidence." — Alta Cal- 
ifornia (San Francisco). 

" The instruction and advice this work contains should reach every woman in our 
country." — New York Standard. 

*' An intelligent, professional, and common-sense view, presented in a way not to 
offend delicacy and refinement." — Providence (R. I ) Press. 

" In the treatment of his subject, evidence appears of consummate skill, thorough 

experience, and respectful deference to other systems Destined to be popular 

and useful." — Methodist (Phila.) Home Journal. 

" Of great importance, very wide interest, and of marked delicacy." — The Pacific 
Congregationcdist {San Froincisco). 

" The author stands deservedly high in Washington as a physician. The reputa- 
tion of Dr. Verdi attests the value of his treatise." — Providence (R. L) Journal, 



A List of Books 

PUBLISHED BY 

J. B. FORD Sd CO., 

27 Park Place, New York, 



For Sale by all Booksellers, or mailed post-paid tipon receipt of p7'ice 
by the Publishers. 

ARRANGED ALPHABETICALLY, BY AUTHORS. 

Amelia E. Barr. 

Romances and Realities: Tales, Sketches and Papers. 

I vol. i2mo. Cloth, $i 50. 

u Mrs. Barr's strong and cultivated with the graces of a style fitted both to 

pen has secured for her writings a public instruct and please her readers." — Chris- 

welcome and graceful appreciation. She tian at Work. 
unites the solidity of scholarly study 



Catharine E. Beecher. 
Principles of Domestic Science as Applied to the Duties 
and Pleasures of Home. I vol. i2mo. Profusely Illustrated. 
Cloth, $1.50. 

Prepared with a view to assist in training young women for the 
distinctive duties which inevitably come upon them in household 
life, this volume has been made with especial reference to the duties, 
cares, and pleasures of the family, as being the place where, what- 
ever the political developments of the future, woman, from her 
nature of body and of spirit, will find her most engrossing occupa- 
tion. It is full of interest for all intelligent girls and young women. 

Educational Reminiscences and Suggestions. The 

fruit of more than half a century of unremitting and successful 
labor for the education of women, this is of great interest to edu- 
cators. i6mo. $1 00. 

" The book is of course forcibly written, and is full of interest." — Hartford 
Courant. 

27 Park Place, New York, 



2 Works Published by J. B. Ford & Co, 

Henry Ward Beecher. 

Sermons? from Phonographic Reports by T. J. Ellinwood, for 
fifteen years Mr. Beecher's Special Reporter. Uniformly bound 
in dark brown English cloth. Each volume contains twenty-six 
Sermons, and the Prayers before the Sermons. Ten vols. 8vo. 
Cloth, $2 50 each. The Set, $22 50. 

Each volume contains six months' sermons (from 450 to 500 pp.), 
issued in uniform style. The First Series has an excellent steel por- 
trait of Mr. Beecher ; the Second Series, a fine interior view of 
Plymouth Church. The other volumes are not illustrated. 



" These corrected sermons of perhaps 
the greatest of living preachers — a man 
whose heart is as warm and catholic as 
his abilities are great, and whose ser- 
mons combine fidelity and scriptural 
truth, great power, glorious imagination, 
fervid rhetoric, and vigorous reasoning, 
with intense human sympathy and robust 
common-sense." — British Quarterly 
Review. 



" There is not a discourse in all this 
large collection that does not hold pas- 
sages of great suggestiveness and power 
for the most ordinary, unsympathizing 
reader — illustrations of great beauty and 
point, eloquent invitations to better life, 
touching appeals to nobler purposes and 
more generous action." — S£ri?igfield 
Refitiblican. 



A. Summer Parish: Sermons and Morning Services of Prayer, 
at the Twin Mountain House, during August, 1874. Large 
i2mo., with Silver Print Photographic Portrait. Extra Cloth, 
$1.50. 



"This volume of mountain services 
will always possess peculiar historic in- 
terest, as it does remarkablemerit ethic- 
ally, devotionally, rhetorically, and 



homiletically. The sermons are inspir- 
ing, and the pjrayers rich in consolation 
and spiritual helpfulness." — Baptist 
Union. 



Yale Lectures on Preaching. Delivered before the classes 
of theology and the faculty of the Divinity School of Yale Col- 
lege. Uniform edition of the Author's Works. 

First Series, Winter of 1872 — The Personal Elements which bear 
an important relation to Preaching. 1 vol. i2mo. Cloth, $125. 

Second Series, Winter of 1873 — Social and Religious Machinery 
of the Church as related to preaching. 1 vol. i2mo. Cloth, $1 50. 

Third Series, Winter of 1874 — Methods of Using Christian Doc- 
trines, in their relations to individual dispositions and the wants 
of the community. 1 vol. i2mo. Cloth, $1 50. 
The three volumes in neat box, $4 00. 

41 Full of common-sense and a knowl- I u Marvelous exhibitions of deep piety, 
edge of human nature, and admirably | sound sense, quick wit, and fervid ad- 
adapted to meet wants in preachers ] dress; interesting to all Christian readers 
which no other writer can so well sup- — invaluable to the beginning preach- 
ply." — Watchma?i and Reflector. | er." — Prof. H. N. Day, College Courant. 

27 Park Place^ New York. 



Works Published by J. B. Ford 6- Co. 



H. W. Beedier {continued). 

Star Papers: or, Experiences of Art and Nature. New 
Edition, with many additional Papers. Uniform Edition of the 
Authors Works. I vol. i2mo. Cloth, $1 75. 



44 We have nothing in the way of de- 
scriptive writing, not even the best 
sketches of Washington Irving, that 
exceeds in richness of imagery and per- 
spicuity of statement these 4 Star Pa- 
pers.' " — Methodist Home Journal. 



44 A book to be read and re-read, and 
always with afresh sense of enjoyment." 
— Portland Press. 

44 So full of rural life, so sparkling with 
cheerfulness, so holy in their tenderness, 
and so brave in nobility of thought." — 
Liberal Christian. 



markable man. They are a series of 
fearless dissertations upon every-day 
subjects, conveyed with a power of elo- 
quence and a practical illustration so 
unique as to be oftentimes startling." — 
Philadelphia Enquirer. 



Lectures to Young 3Ien on Various Important Subjects. 
New Edition, with additional Lectures. Uniform Edition of 
the Author's Works. I vol. i2mo. Cloth, $1 50. 

44 Wise and elevating in tone, pervaded 
by earnestness, and well fitted for its 
mission to improve and benefit the youth 
of the land." — Boston Commonwealth. 

''Written with all the vigor of style 
and beauty of language which character- 
ize everything from the pen of this re- 

Pleasant Talk About Fruits, Flowers, and Farming. 

New Edition, with much additional matter. Uniform Edition 
of the Author's Works. I vol. i2mo. Cloth, $200. 

A delightful book. The poetiy and prose of Beecher's Farm and 
Garden experiences. 

44 Not merely readable and instruc- I tive, but singularly fascinating in its 

I magnetic style." — Philadelphia Press. 

Norwood : or, Village Life in Netv England. A Novel. 
Uniform Edition of the Author's Works ; also, uniform with 
J. B. F. & Co.'s Novel Series. I vol. i2mo 



Ilhtslrated, $2 00. 

Copperfield.' " — A Ibany Evening Jour- 
nal. 

44 The book is wholesome and delight- 
ful, to be taken up again and yet again 
with fresh pleasure." — Chicago Stand- 
ard. 

Lecture Hoom Talks. A Series of Familiar Discourses, on 

Themes of Christian Experience. Phonographically reported 

by T. J. Ellinwood. Uniform Edition of the Author's Works. 

I vol. i2ino. With Steel Portrait. Price, $1 75. 



"Embodies more of the high art of 
fiction than any half dozen of the best 
novels of the best authors of the day. 
It will bear to be read and re-read as 
often as Dickens's 4 Dombey ' or 4 David 



44 It is easy to see why the old-fash- 
ioned prayer-meeting has been replaced 
by that eager and crowded assembly 



which throngs the Plymouth Lecture 
Room each Friday evening." — New 
York Evangelist. 



27 Park Place , New York. 



4 Works Published by J. B. Ford 6° Co. 

H. W. Beecher {continued). 

The Overture of Angels* A Series of Pictures of the Angelic 
Appearances Attending the Nativity of Our Lord. A Chapter 
from the " Life of Christ." Illustrated. I vol. i2mo. $200. 

A beautiful and characteristically interesting treatment of all the 
events recorded in the Gospels as occurring about the time of the 
Nativity. Full of poetic imagery, beauty of sentiment, and vivid 
pictures of the life of the Orient in that day. 

" The style, the sentiment, and faith- I characteristic of its author." — Worces- 
fulness to thespirit of the Biblical record ter (Mass.) Spy. 
with which the narrative is treated are | "A perfect fragment." — N.Y. World. 

English and American Speeches on Politics, War, and 
various miscellaneous topics. Uniform Edition of the Author's 
Works. I vol. i2mo. In preparation. 
This will include all of the more important of Mr. Beecher's 
Speeches which have been preserved. 

Eyes and Ears: or, Thoughts as They Occur, by One Who 

Keeps his Eyes and Ears Open. New Edition. Uniform Edi- 
tion of the Author's Works. I vol. i2mo. Cloth. In prepa?-ation. 

"Royal Truths* This is a selected gathering of papers, passages, 
illustrations, descriptions, from sermons, speeches, prayer-meeting 
discourses, writings, etc., which has had a large sale both in 
England and America. The New Edition will be enlarged by 
the addition of much new matter of interest, Uniform Edition 
of the Author's Works. I vol. i2mo. In preparation. 

Views and 'Experiences of Religious Matters* Origin- 
ally published as a second collection of religious " Star Papers," 
these admirable and helpful articles will be added to by others, 
heretofore unpublished. Uniform Edition of the Author's 
Works. I vol. i2mo. In preparation. 



Thomas K. Beecher. 

Our Seven Churches* Eight Lectures. 1 vol. i6mo. Paper, 
50 cts. ; Cloth, $ 1 00. 

A most valuable exponent of the doctrines of the leading religious 
denominations, and a striking exhibition of the author's magnanimity 
and breadth of loving sympathy. 

u The sermons are written in a style 
at once brilliant, epigrammatic, and 
readable." — Utica Herald. 

u This little book has created^ con- 
siderable discussion among the religious 
journals, and will be read with interest 
by all." — Phila. Ledger. 



" There is hardly a page which does 
not offer a fresh thought, a genial touch 
of humor, or a suggestion at which the 
reader's heart leaps up with grateful 
surprise that a minister belonging to a 
sect can think and speak so generously 
and nobly." — Milwaukee Sentinel. 



27 Park Place, New York. 



Works Published by J. B. Ford 6° Co. 5 

A. Ho Bogardus. 
Field, Cover, and Trap Shooting, By the Champion Wing 

Shot of Ameriea. Edited by Chas. J. Foster. 1 vol. i2mo. 

With Steel Portrait of the Author, and an Engraving of the 

Champion Medal. Cloth, $2 00. 
A compendium of many years of experience, giving hints for skilled 
marksmen and instructions for young sportsmen, describing the 
haunts and habits of game birds, flight and resorts of water fowl, 
breeding and breaking of dogs, and everything of interest to the 
sportsman. The author is " champion wing-shot of America, who 
knows a gun as Hiram Woodruff knew a horse. And he has the 
same careful and competent editor who put Woodruffs " Trotting 
Horse of America into shape — Chas. J. Foster, so many years sport- 
ing editor of Wilkes' Spirit of the Times. 

" No sportsman can peruse this book j months in the year in this healthful and 
without profit and instruction ; while to \ delightful pursuit, it will be invaluable." 
the young beginner with the gun, and to I — Wilkes' Spirit. 
the amateur who can spend but a few [ 



Arnold Burges. 

The American Kennel and Sporting Field, By the 

late Editor of the Americaiz Sportsman. Square 8vo. Illus- 
trated. $4. 

A History of the Origin of Dogs, especially of the Sporting 
Varieties. Also, detailed practical instructions on Breeding, Break- 
ing, and Kennel management ; with a Stud List of fine Dogs in the 
United States, both imported and native-bred from imported stock, 
giving correct Pedigrees, after the manner of the English and Ameri- 
can Turf Calendars. 



Henry Churton. 

Toinette : A Tale of Transition. I vol. i2mo, Extra Cloth, 
Fancy Stamped Ink and Gilt Side. $1.50. 

Not only a brilliant picture of individual life, full of stirring scenes 
and emotional characters, but a graphic delineation of slave-life and 
emancipation, by one who lived under the old regime at the South, 
and saw it give place to the new. Companion piece to " Uncle 
Tom's Cabin," this powerful novel finishes what that great work 
began. 



" Clearly conceived and told with 

power There is not a prosy 

chapter in the book. The author grasps 
the elements of his story with a firm 
hand and combines them into vivid 
scenes. ' ' — L iberal Ck ristian . 

" Absolutely thrilling in some of its 



situations and delineations." — Chicago 
Evening Journal. 

U A remarkable book. It is fascina- 
ting, thrilling, and its scenes are vivid 
as the lightnings." — Atlanta (Ga.^ 
Methodist A dvocate. 



27 Park Place, New York. 



Works Published by J. B. Ford 6° Co. 



Mrs. S. M. Davis. 
TJie JLife and Times of Sir Philip Sidney* A New 

and Revised Edition, with Index, etc. Three steel plates ; Por- 
trait of Sidney ; View of Penshurst Castle ; and Fac-simile of 
Sidney's manuscript. i2mo. Silk Cloth, Beveled Boards, 
Stamped with Sidney's Coat-of-Arms in Ink and Gold, $i 50. 

" An elaborate sketch of a most inter- 
esting character," — - Chicago Evening 
Journal. 



" Its binding is exquisitely chaste." — 
N.Y. World. 

"Beautifully complete in every de- 
tail." — New Haven Journal & Courier. 



Edward Eggleston. 

The Circuit Mider : A Tale of the Heroic Age. Author of 
"The Hoosier Schoolmaster" etc. Illustrated with over thirty 
characteristic drawings by G. G. White and Sol Eytinge. 1 vol. 
i2mo. Extra Cloth, Gilt, and Ink-Stamped Covers, $1 75. 

This story is exciting widespread interest, both as a powerful 
novel and genuine love-story, and as a graphic picture of the West in 
the adventurous days of saddle-bags and circuit-riding preachers, 

" The breezy freshness of the Western 
prairie blended with the refinements of 
literary culture. It is alive with the 
sound of rushing streams and the echoes 
of the forest, but shows a certain grace 



ful self-possession which betrays the 
presence of the artist's power." — N. Y. 
Tribune. 



11 It is his .best work ; a grand story ; a 
true picture of the past and of itinerant 
life in the old times of simplicity and 
hardship."— N. Y. Methodist. 

" The best American story, and the 
most thoroughly American one, that has 
appeared for years." — Phila. Evening 
Bulletin. 



Ferdinand Fabre. 

The Abbe Tigrane, Candidate for the Papal Chair. Trans- 
lated from the French by Rev. Leonard Woolsey Bacon. i8mo. 
Cloth, $1.50. 



• u It is a vigorous narrative, to which 
the true lover of story reading, tired of 
the sentimental novels that are filling 
our bookshelves, will turn with increas- 
ing interest. It contains not a line of 
love and conventional romance, but 



mingles the opposite passions of hate, 
anger and ambition, which are its con- 
trolling forces. It pictures men in their 
mutual struggles for power, and has 
hardly a mention of women." — Boston 
Morning Star. 



Rev. T. A. Goodwin, A.M. 

The Mode of Man's Immortality : or, The When, Where 
and How of the Future Life. Author of " The Perfect Ma7i" 
and late Editor of " The Indiana Christian Advocate." 1 vol. 
l2mo. Cloth, $1 25. 
" Certainly shows with great force the 
well-nigh insuperable difficulties attend- 
ing the common opinions of the resur- 
rection of the actual body that is placed 



in the dust, and develops quite a con- 
sistent and interesting theory in refer- 
ence to the nature of the resurrection 
life.* ' — Zio 11 ' j - Hera Id. 



27 Park Place, New York. 



Works Published by J, B, Ford 6" Co, 



Robertson Gray. 

JBrave Hearts. A Novel. By Robertson Gray (R. W. Ray- 
mond). I vol. i2mo. Illustrated. Cloth. $1 75. 

A characteristic American tale, with Illustrations by Darley, Ste- 
phens, Frank Beard, and Kendrick. 

41 About as pure, breezy, and withal, 
readable a story of American life as we 
have met with this long time." — Con- 



gregationalist. 



44 Its pictures of the strange life of 
those early California days are simply 
admirable, quite as good as anything 
Bret Harte has written." — Lit. World. 



Grace Greenwood. 



New Life in New Lands. Notes of Travel Across the 
American Continent, from Chicago to the Pacific and Back. 
I vol. i2mo. $2 00. 

This is a gathered series of letters, racy, brilliant, piquant ; full of 
keen observation and pungent statement of facts, picturesque in de- 
lineation of scenes on the plains, in the mountains, and along the 
sea. 

44 Grace always finds lots of things no 
one else would see ; and she has a happy 
knack of picking up the mountains and 
cities and big trees and tossing them 

Heads and Tails : Studies and Stories of Pets. Square i6mo. 

Illustrated. Extra Cloth, Beveled Boards, Elaborate Gilt and 

Ink-Stamped Sides, Gilt Edges, $2.00. 

44 Grace Greenwood is gifted with a 
special knack at story-telling for young 
folks, and Heads and Tails, with its 



across the continent right before the 
reader's eyes. It's very convenient." — 
Buffalo Express. 



stories of pet birds, cats, &c, is a delight- 
ful book." — Chicago Advance. 



44 We don't know where there is pleas- 
anter reading than in these stories of 
pets." — Boston Commonwealth, 



Rev. S. B. Hailiday, 

Winning SoiUs. Sketches and Incidents During Forty Years 
of Pastoral Work. I vol. i2mo. Cloth, $1.00. 



44 Full of valuable suggestions to min- 
isters in the department of active duty." 
— Methodist Recorder. 

44 The book is tenderly written, and 



many of its pathetic scenes will be read 
with moistened eyes. We commend the 
book to pastors and people." — Boston 
Christian Era. 



encouragement." — Christu 



The Little Street- Sweeper ; or, Life among the Poor. 

i2mo. Cloth, $1.25. 

44 His pages have the interest of pa- tion and 
thetic tales, with all the eloquence of a at Work. 
genuine philanthropy appended. To 
those who have any commiseration for 
the unfortunates who constantly need 
the sympathy of Christian hearts and 
hands, this volume will carry instruc- 



I vol. 



44 It is written in a sympathetic spirit, 
and will be likely to awake fresh in- 
terest in behalf of the class whose story 
it tells." — Morning Star. 



27 Park Place, New York, 



Works Published by J. B. Ford 6° Co. 



Rossiter W. Raymond, Ph. D. 

U. S. Commissioner Mining Statistics ; Preset. Am. Inst. Milling En- 
gineers j Editor Engineerhtg and Mining Journal; Author of 
"Mines, Mills, and Eurnaces" etc., etc. 
Silver and Gold : An Account of the Mining and Metallurgical 
Industry of the United States, with reference chiefly to the 
Precious Metals. I vol. 8vo. Cloth, $3 50. 

"Valuable and exhaustive work on a I U A repository of much valuable cur- 
theme of great import to the world of rent information." — N. V. Tribune. 
industry." — Philadelphia Inquirer. \ 

Mining Industry of the States and Territories West 
of the Rocky Mountains ; including Descriptions of Quartz, 
Placer, and Hydraulic Mining ; Amalgamation, Concentration, 
Smelting, etc. Illustrated with nearly one hundred Engravings 
and Maps, and a Colored Geological Map of the United States. 
I vol. 8vo. Cloth, $4 50. 

" Recognized in this country and in I and interesting to a remarkable de- 
Europe as professionally authoritative | gree." — Washington Chronicle. 



Harriet Beecher Stowe. 

J3Hy Wife and I : Or, Harry Henderson's History. A Novel. 
Illustrated. I vol. i2mo. Cloth, $1.75. 



" A capital story, in which fashionable 
follies are shown up, fast young ladies 
weighed in the balance and found want- 
ing, and the value of true worth ex- 
hibited.' ' — Portland A rgus. 



_ ''Always bright, piquant, and enter- 
taining, with an occasional touch of ten- 
derness, strong because subtle, keen in 
sarcasm, full of womanly logic directed 
against unwomanly tendencies." — Bos- 
ton Journal. 



We and Our Neighbors: Or, The Records of an Unfashion- 
able Street. A Sequel to " My Wife and I." I vol. Illustrated 
by Alfred Fredericks. i2mo. Cloth, $1.75. 



14 Mrs. Stowe's stvle is picturesque, 
piquant, with just enough vivacity and 
vim to give the romance edge, and 
throughout these delicious sketches 
of scenes, with bits of dry humor, so 
peculiar to her writings."— Pittsburgh 
Connnercial. 



"Natural, sprightly, full of action and 
incident, illumined by wit, and abound- 
ing with delicate humor. The book is 
admirably illustrated, and handsomely 
bound." — hidianapolis Jou? nal. 



Betty's Bright Idea; and other Stories. 
Paper Covers, 30 cents. Cloth, 75 cents. 



Illustrated. i2mo. 



" The hand that penned them has not 
lost its cunning, and many a man will 
grow tender - hearted, trustful, and 
gracious as he reads these little tales. 
Cincinnati Times. 



'* The stories are all charmingly told 
in the author's best style." — Lutheran 
and Missio?iary. 



27 Park Place 7 New York. 



